Senior walks for nearly five hours due to bus, taxi strike

A senior citizen who lives in Waterhouse, St Andrew, walked for about four-and-a-half-hours from her place of employment on Mountain View Avenue to reach home from work as taxi and bus operators went on strike to demand a traffic ticket amnesty on Monday.

The 70-year-old, who only identified herself as 'Miss Dorothy', said the roughly 22-kilometre walk was "very good" as she was "walking and talking with The Lord all the time".

"Mi left work from 9:35 yesterday morning and reach home minutes to 2 p.m. Mi tek mi likkle time and walk go where me was going. Meanwhile, mi walk I was talking to the Lord because a Him guide me," the elderly woman said. Ms Dorothy said that the only time she felt scared was when she waited for an hour at a bus stop along Mountain View Avenue for a taxi.

"When mi did stand up at the bus stop mi see two bwoy a walk come up the road and mi never like how dem look, that was the only time mi remember feeling scared," she said.

The senior said she walked the usual route that a taxi would take from Mountain View into Cross Roads. She also said that she wasn't aware of the strike until after she arrived at the Waterhouse bus stop.

"Not a soul was there and is another long wait that again. So one of the gentleman out there said to me that no bus or taxi was working and me ask him why. Mi see one bus driver a tek up people inna one like vehicle but by time mi reach, him full up. Him say to me say, 'Lawd, mi dear mama, I am sorry mi cyah bring yuh cause me no wah police see mi wid too much people and tek weh mi car'. Mi stand up there at the bus stop for another 45 minutes again before mi decide say mi a go just continue walk till mi reach home," she said.

"After me reach home, mi wah tell yuh say mi buss a piece a sleep deh weh no stop yah so," she joked.

"When mi reach di bus terminus inna Waterhouse, mi see say mi soon reach and I felt so good. But before dat, one lady see me out a Waltham Park Road and asked if a walk mi a walk. See when me tell her where I was walking from, she say 'Lady, yuh good fi a walk from so far'," she added.

Ms Dorothy said she is hoping that the strike does not continue today as her day's work contributes a lot to her well-being.

"A no good sumn, yuh know how much school pickney mi see a walk today because dem cannot get bus nor taxi? Dis cannot continue because people have to go work and school. A just so it guh fi poor people inna dis country yah, because we as good people affi a suffer for the bad taxi and drivers dem on the road," she said.