Potholes, crabs a menace to highway drivers

Anyone who travels the Northern Highway between Ladyville and Belize City knows the state of the road after heavy rains. But currently, potholes are not the only menace to vehicles, as News Five’s Jacqueline Woods found out.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
It’s crab season and these eight-legged crustaceans have certainly been making their presence known in the neighbourhoods they invade. They are all over the highways and anything else they just happen to crawl into. But while these blue creatures may be a delicacy, the crabs have also been doing damage to the tyres that run over them as they try to get across the roadways.

Barry Reimer, Employee, Caribbean Tire Wholesale
Crab claws are the part that is so strong they can even puncture your tyres. It’s almost like a nail, it goes straight through.”

Jacqueline Woods
“How many tyres have you guys been receiving, how many jobs have you had to do?”

Barry Reimer
“The last couple of days we’ve had maybe half a dozen, and that is because the crabs are running across the road and then you can’t avoid all of them, so it does happen.”

“As much as possible, don’t run over a crab, a lot of time nothing will happen, but something can. The actually top shell is soft, so that won’t really happen, but it’s the claws that you have to watch out for.”

It’s not only the crab claws that have been a big headache to motorists travelling along the Northern Highway. Potholes deep enough to cause a driver to lose control have become far too common and far too difficult to avoid.

According to Caribbean Tire Wholesale Limited Employee Barry Reimer, they have seen many vehicles in the past two weeks as a result of the poor road condition. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

If and when the road will be repaired is anybody’s guess, but in the meantime the best advice to motorists is to slow down.