Life is fragile, UTech student leader reminds peers as three perish in crash
Published:Friday | February 28, 2020 | 12:00 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
President of the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) Students’ Union Khalil Hutchinson is cautioning fellow students against taking life for granted.
Hutchinson was speaking with The Gleaner on the heels of a triple fatal crash early Thursday morning involving students of the Papine, St Andrew-based university.
They have been identified as 22-year-old Romario Nedrick of Cornwall Courts, St James; 23-year-old Lemaro Cole of Orange Hill, St Ann; and 20-year-old Devaughn Cunningham of Tryall Gardens, St James.
The driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle along the Sir Florizel Glasspole Boulevard in Kingston about 2:16 a.m.
The black Toyota Premio motor car, the police said, was registered to an owner of a St James address.
The driver of the ill-fated car crashed into the gate of the packaging plant of the Caribbean Cement Company before it overturned, in the process, slamming into the security post.
Two of the passengers were flung from the wreckage, and a security guard was injured and is being treated at hospital.
Yesterday, Hutchinson told The Gleaner: “I want to use this opportunity to encourage the students to be very careful because life is fragile, so we can’t really go around acting like we are invincible because as we can see this morning (yesterday), anything can happen. I also want to remind them to give thanks every day.”
News of the tragedy plunged the institution into mourning.
Hutchinson said: “The mood of the students is, as you’d expect, very sad. The students, some of them [involved in the crash] are very active members and they were a part of seminars.”