Stephen Shaw, the Manager of Communications and Customer Services at the National Works Agency (NWA), says the organisation is not at fault for the death of 61-year-old Portmore resident Linton Davis, who was killed when a rock fell on his truck in the Bog Walk Gorge.

Davis was driving through the gorge in St Catherine, on Friday, August 15, when a large stone rolled off the hillside and crashed into the roof of his Isuzu motor vehicle. He was pulled from the crushed vehicle and rushed to the Spanish Town Hospital, where he died.

In the aftermath of the incident, several have turned to the National Works Agency for an explanation. The expectation is that the hillside along the gorge should have been checked for possible loose rocks to have them removed to prevent such incidents.

The NWA is an executive agency that falls under the Ministry of Transportation. According to its mission statement, its duty is “to plan, build and maintain a reliable, safe and efficient main road network and flood control system”.

Though this specifically includes protecting life and property, Shaw has described the events at Bog Walk as an event beyond the NWA’s control.

“This was an Act of God, and very unfortunate,” Shaw said. “If we could prevent it, we obviously would have, but these rockslides are no different than hurricanes or earthquakes, being largely unpredictable.”

According to Shaw, the National Works Agency was quickly informed of the tragedy and responded immediately, sending out a team to investigate what had happened and observe the aftermath.

The phenomenon of rockslides in the Bog Walk area is not a recent development. Several motorists who use the route have expressed fear and concern about the danger, with one detailing a frightening incident in which a rock fell from the hillside and damaged the windshield of his vehicle.

When asked if there were any pre-emptive or protective measures in place to reduce the risks of land and rockslides in the area, Shaw said that measures were chiefly focused on raising public awareness, rather than doing surveys of the terrain to search for loose stones or shaky ground.

“Bog Walk Gorge and falling rocks are nothing new,” he stated. “Warning signs have been installed, and our Social Media sites are at work to advise the public of where they are vulnerable places. Checking the area itself is not something done on a routine basis. I can’t tell if there are plans at this time to do another review of the terrain, but all that can be done is being done.”