Sharing her ordeal with this medium, Mrs Bah, who works for Reliance Financial Services at Barra, narrated that on the 1st of January 2024, she left her residence at Wellingara to spend the night in her sister’s house in Banjul to catch up with the early morning ferry to Barra.
This is what she used to do to cross the Atlantic Ocean for an early catch to work at Barra, she pointed out, saying heading to Banjul in the afternoon of that fateful day, she happened to enter a traffic jam at the Denton Bridge in Banjul.
“Although I wanted to return to Kombo but to no avail because the traffic was horrible in both ways,” she narrated. “I then decided to proceed but only to realise that my car was badly heating, so I decided to park at around the Mile 2 Prison for over 30 minutes before I resumed the journey.”
Awa said she tried to take the main highway entry point to Banjul, but realised that the security officers had put a blockage on the road.
“So, I decided to use the Bond Road, where my car got burnt because of overheating,” she lamented. “I was notified by a lady that there was fire beneath my car. And I parked and did everything possible with the help of others to stop the fire using the fire extinguisher but to no avail.”
Mrs Bah, who lost many of her documents, including insurance papers, identity card and her clothes, emphasised the need to properly manage traffic jams and to apply professionalism and urgency in mounting checkpoints or blockage.
