In a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort to pre­vent any­one else from falling in­to a pot­hole along El So­cor­ro Road and Fifth Street in San Juan, both the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (SLRC) and the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port have tem­porar­i­ly cov­ered the hole.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed yes­ter­day morn­ing, the hole was cov­ered with a con­crete slab and had an or­ange cone on top.

SLRC vice chair­man Kwe­si An­toine said once they learnt about the hole, they act­ed im­me­di­ate­ly al­though they may not be re­spon­si­ble for the re­pairs.

“We didn’t know it ex­ist­ed ... once this in­for­ma­tion comes to us we deal with it as soon as pos­si­ble. I spoke to the Min­is­ter of Works who as­sured that he would give us as­sis­tance,” he said.

He said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion was still un­der­way to as­cer­tain whether the road fell un­der the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion or the min­istry.

“There are rep­re­sen­ta­tives for each elec­toral dis­trict and there is al­so a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for the area, un­for­tu­nate­ly it took this to hap­pen for it to be dealt with,” he said.

An­toine wished Si­mone Adams, who fell in­to the hole, a speedy re­cov­ery and al­so apol­o­gised to her.

On Fri­day, as Adams ex­it­ed a ve­hi­cle at El So­cor­ro Road and Fifth Street in San Juan, she fell di­rect­ly in­to the hole.

Fire of­fi­cers and the EHS re­spon­ders rushed to her as­sis­tance. She was tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, where an X-ray showed she did not break any bones. She told Guardian Me­dia, how­ev­er, she was in ex­cru­ci­at­ing pain.

Dur­ing that in­ter­view, Adams sig­nalled her in­ten­tion to sue. Guardian Me­dia reached out to an at­tor­ney to find out what re­dress vic­tims could take.

The at­tor­ney said Adams has le­gal op­tions which de­pend on who owns the road. He added that most re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions have in­dem­ni­ty in­sur­ance for these types of ac­ci­dents and ad­vised Adams to get a med­ical, pre­pare a state­ment about what hap­pened, get pic­tures of her in the hole and her in­juries.

Back in 2018, the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port was or­dered to pay a Princes Town woman ap­prox­i­mate­ly $75,000 af­ter she fell through a de­fec­tive man­hole cov­er un­der its con­trol.

Since Adams’ plight was high­light­ed, res­i­dents of North Post Road, Diego Mar­tin, took to so­cial me­dia to show a cor­rod­ed pave­ment near two schools. They said chil­dren pass the hole, which has been there for ap­prox­i­mate­ly two years.

The res­i­dents said they reached out to the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and min­istry to re­port the prob­lem but noth­ing has been done. They told Guardian Me­dia when it rains, the hole is cov­ered with wa­ter and claimed at least one adult and two chil­dren have fall­en in.