Crashes claim lives of well-known women in west

Western Bureau:

Two well-known females on the western Jamaica business circuit lost their lives in road crashes on Wednesday night.

Kadesha Murray, the branch manager at FLOW Jamaica’s Fairview branch in Montego Bay, and popular JUTA bus operator 28-year-old Chelsie Malcolm, of Cousins Cove, in Hanover perished in separate crashes.

In the first accident, which occurred at about 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Malcolm and an eight-month-old child were travelling in a silver Toyota Fielder motor car from Lucea towards Green Island. On reaching a section of the Lances Bay main road, in the vicinity of a bridge, Malcolm reportedly lost control of the car, which crashed into a utility pole.

Malcolm and the child were rushed to the Noel Holmes Hospital, in Lucea, where she was pronounced dead and the child admitted in serious condition.

Yesterday, several members of the JUTA Western Jamaica Chapter gathered in the vicinity of the Sangster International Airport, where Malcolm was a popular face, to grieve and reflect on her life.

In the second accident, Murray, 40, who resided in Martha Brae, Trelawny, died in a crash along the Ironshore main road while heading home from Montego Bay.

Reports are that at about 1:30 a.m., she was driving her Nissan Bluebird motor car towards Trelawny when she lost control of the vehicle, which crashed into a wall in the vicinity of the Zoetry Hotel. She died on the spot.

Grief gripped colleagues at Murray’s workplace yesterday as they mourned her loss and spoke of her many fine qualities.

“Kadesha was a fun-loving person, who was also willing to help others,” a co-worker told The Gleaner. “She took her job seriously and was an inspiration to all of us.”

St James and Hanover have recorded numerous fatal accidents since the start of the year. In Hanover, 12 persons have died in 11 fatal accidents since the start of the year, while in St James, 25 persons have been killed in 23 accidents.