Road grief

Western Bureau:

TRAGIC MOTOR vehicle accidents accounted for the loss of four lives on roadways in the western thoroughfare of Trelawny, St James and the Manchester-St Elizabeth border yesterday, leaving families in grief and prompting Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie to urge “personal responsibility” from drivers.

The fatalities included cousins Omar Hewitt, 25, and Nevardo Brown, 21, who were both struck off a motorcycle at approximately 9 a.m. on the Spur Tree Main Road at Montpelier, near the border of Manchester and St Elizabeth; 41-year-old Alica Smith of Dumfries, St James, who lost her life in an accident near home at around 7:20 a.m.; and 24-year-old Kilmonette Johnson, who suffered severe burns after her vehicle burst into flames following a head-on crash on the Duncans bypass in Trelawny, at around 7:20 a.m.

Added to the death of 11-year-old Jeff Fitzgerald of Lilliput, who was hit as he was about to cross the street en route to school at Spot Valley in St James on Monday, the numbers rose to five killed in motor vehicle accidents in less than 48 hours.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie, head of Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, lamented the number of road fatalities and speeding.

“Over the past 10 days we’ve had about 12 persons that have died along the roadways as a result of motor vehicle crashes. The type of crashes that we’ve had it really indicates that we need to slow down on the roads because a number of them are a result of driving at excessive speeds,” McKenzie observed.

“In other in stances, we note that persons are not driving according to the condition of the road. Persons are taking corners at fast speeds and overtaking in areas where they’re not supposed to and we’ve seen where these crashes have caused very serious injuries, damage to motor vehicles and persons have died.”

Continuing, ACP McKenzie said: “Now the police have been trying to occupy and dominate where we find that persons are driving at excessive speed and we have stepped up our prosecution. However, the police simply cannot be everywhere and every time and so personal responsibility by road users is of paramount importance.

“We cannot afford to just be giving our lives away on the roadway carelessly because over 90 per cent of these crashes are as a result of human errors.”

Police investigators on the accident scene on Spur Tree Hill said welders Hewitt and Brown, who were travelling on a motorcycle towards Junction, St Elizabeth, were struck by a Toyota Mark X motor car which was overtaking a Toyota Coaster bus. The impact catapulted both riders over the car, with Hewitt slamming into the windshield of the bus and Brown going over it. Both were pronounced dead on the scene.

The occupants of the car, who were, reportedly, not hurt seriously, abandoned their damaged vehicle and fled the scene.

Family members from the neighbouring Pepper district, where the deceased lived, swiftly converged on the scene, weeping and bemoaning the plight of the young men, as traffic on the busy thoroughfare linking the island’s south coast was halted as investigators worked the area.

“This is a very hot and cruel death to my son and my cousin,” said a teary-eyed Privette McIntosh, Hewitt’s mother. “They’ve taken my son from me at a very tender age.

“All I can say is may my son rest in peace and may the law take justice,” she added.

His sister, Shara-Kay Hewitt, shared: “Right now I don’t know what to say. It’s just four months now that I lost my grandmother. And him just never wanted to go to work this morning.”

The grief-stricken family shared that both were returning from a house, where they had gone to effect measurements for grille work, and were making their way back to their place of employment, Austin’s Welding Shop, in Pepper.

THOSE LEFT BEHIND

Smith, too, met a tragic end close to home, while returning from Riu Hotel, Montego Bay, where she was employed as a housekeeper. She left behind husband Delon and three children.

“She would normally be on the night shift, but her workplace is experiencing a staff shortage and she was asked to come in for an 8 p.m.-4 p.m. shift. Normally, she would have been on the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift,” Delon explained. “When she is working on the night shift, she would have a direct drive from Montego Bay to her gate.

“We are seriously broken. It’s very hard to deal with (this), but as a family we are deeply grounded in God. It is the strength of God that keeps us going. We are a strong Christian family and my pastor and church family have been praying and providing support since the news of her death,” added Delon.

“When people die on the roads it is much more than just that as many loved ones have been left behind,” ACP McKenzie stated.

“Most of the times approximately 80 per cent of the persons dying are males and they are the breadwinners. So when they die a void is left in the family. It is more than an accident as the entire development of families and the country is shattered.”

Since the start of the year, 64 persons have been killed on the nation’s roadway.

audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com