Two killed as car slams into parked truck on North Coast Highway
Published:Monday | August 8, 2022 | 12:08 AMHopeton Bucknor and Leon Jackson/Gleaner Writers
WESTERN BUREAU:
A popular hairdresser is among two persons who died in a traffic crash when a car sped off the North Coast Highway and slammed into a parked truck in Greenwood along the St James-Trelawny border on Sunday morning.
The hairdresser has been identified as 31-year-old Shirley Payne, of Lilliput, St James. The other fatality is 21-year-old Maurice Thomas of Rose Heights, also in St James.
Road fatalities have been cause for concern along the north coast corridor since the start of the year. The latest deaths have moved the count for Trelawny to 18 in 2022.
Reports from the Trelawny police are that after 2 a.m., Payne and Thomas were among four persons travelling westerly in a grey Mazda Demio motor car.
On reaching a section of the Wiltshire main road, the driver of the motor car lost control of the vehicle and careened on to the soft shoulder, crashing into a Hino truck.
Payne, who was in the front passenger seat, and Thomas, who was seated at the rear, both sustained head and body injuries. Both died on the spot.
The driver and another male passenger also sustained serious injuries and were rushed to Falmouth Hospital, where they were admitted in stable condition.
Carlos Morgan, who is alleged to have witnessed the accident, told The Gleaner that Payne and Thomas appeared dead immediately after the crash.
“When I checked the car, a man and a woman appeared dead, and two others showed signs of injuries and were lying in the car groaning,” Morgan said.
Deputy Superintendent Ronald Blissett of the Falmouth Fire Station said firefighters arrived at the scene at 2:24 a.m.
From January 1 to August 7, a total of 102 persons have been killed in motor vehicle accidents across western Jamaica, compared to 94 persons being killed over the same period in 2021.
Two hundred and eighty-five people were killed in road crashes as at August 5, 2022, the same number for the corresponding period in the previous year.
The number of fatal crashes, however, has decreased by three per cent.