Market truck crash victim cries foul - Simpson disappointed with compensation 12 years after tragedy

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Portland:

Linford Jackson, a farmer who was pinned underneath a market truck for the better part of six hours during a horrific truck accident on December 19, 2008, now walks with a limp and is unable to actively assume his livelihood.

It was 12 years ago that Jackson also pleaded with a nurse to cut off his leg because of the excruciating pain he felt lying beneath the weight of the market truck, which had plunged over a precipice at Dam Bridge in the Rio Grande Valley of Portland.

Jackson recounted that it started out as a normal trip for him and 20 others, who were taking their yams, dasheen, green bananas, plantains, and jelly coconuts to the Coronation Market in Kingston.

While navigating a section of the roadway during rainfall, the truck plunged into a ravine and the weight of the unit and the agricultural produce crushed many persons as it landed.

Fourteen persons, including a 10-year-old boy, lost their lives in the tragedy.

Jackson said that the tragic events of the fateful night created a major disruption in his life, adding that he did not receive the level of compensation and assistance he had anticipated from the accident.

“Mi nuh get nuh benefit, yuh know. ... Di only ting mi get outta it is a likkle house dem meck gi mi. A di only benefit mi get,” Jackson told The Gleaner on Wednesday. “Mi still a feel pain every day outta it. Can’t work fi help mi self and all dem ting deh.”

Jackson also admitted that he received $20,000 from the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), but argued that he had to abort therapy as he was unable to find the taxi fare to travel to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital for the treatment, which was being done at no cost.

The Bruce Golding-led Government at the time of the crash had indicated that family members would be consulted to determine what assistance the State would provide to survivors of the accident and relatives of the deceased.

A revolving fund was then established to provide assistance with school expenses, fares and food for children of the victims. The Portland Parish Council (now Portland Municipal Corporation) was charged with overseeing and disbursing the funds to the surviving parent, relative or guardian, for the well-being of the children.

Both the Office of Prime Minister and the Ministry of Agriculture had contributed $500,000 each to the fund.

However, approximately three years later, the parish council said that the funds had been depleted.

Since that accident, repairs were done to some sections of the roadway, including the corridor from the Alligator Church Bridge to Kent, which is approximately two kilometres. The corridor from Ginger House to Comfort Castle and Mill Bank remains in a deplorable state.

The area at Dam Bridge, where the tragedy took place, is now covered by shrubbery and other forms of vegetation. Vegetation has also covered a gabion basket erected as part of a retaining wall to rehabilitate the road along the corridor.

editorial@gleanerjm.com