Drivers rush home just as the curfew is about to come into effect on Tuesday
By Sue-Ann Wayow
AS the curfew hours came into effect at 9pm on Monday night, drivers were seen rushing to get home and essential night workers took their positions at work.
In the usual bustling borough of Chaguanas, the only buzz was at the Chaguanas District Health Facility as relatives of sick patients waited outside while their loved ones were being attended to inside.
AZPNews.com was out with the necessary curfew authorisation and spoke with several persons who are part of the few selected allowed to be outside their homes between the hours of 9pm and 5am.
The Independence holiday was Tuesday but unlike years in the past, there is no pomp, ceremony or late night liming.
One security guard at Medford Gas Station lamented the lack of activity at the popular station.
He said, “Every day, this place would open 24/7 and it would be very busy. Now, everywhere has to close up early. Things are really really bad. Even when the pandemic is over, I do not think that we would ever back to how things used to be.”
Some workers with the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) said they wished the SoE would end.
While they said work at night was nothing new to them, during the rainy season, their work load will be more given the disruption in electricity due to bad weather.
One said, “I really wish this SoE will end. This is going on for too long now.”
Police officers from the Freeport Highway Patrol were out on the job stopping as many vehicles as they could.
In terms of stopping every vehicle on the highway, the officers said that it would be difficult to stop all drivers given the speed that some would be going at but those that were stopped were in compliance with the law.
How they feel about extra duties during the SoE, “we got to do what we got to do,” they said.
