One dead, seven critically injured, in Fern Gully crash
Published:Monday | April 1, 2024 | 12:05 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
A bus with 23 passengers, mostly children, on an Easter Sunday holiday excursion to Ocho Rios in St Ann crashed in Fern Gully on Sunday, killing one person and injuring everyone else on board.
Forty-nine-year-old Suzette Thomas, a housekeeper of a Wildman Street address in Kingston, was pronounced dead at the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital after the driver lost control of the vehicle, which then crashed into an embankment.
Several persons were flung from the vehicle, with videos of the scene circulating on social media showing people lying on the roadway, raising fears of a mass fatality event on the most religious Sunday of the year.
However, up to press time, there was only one confirmed death while seven persons remained in hospital in critical condition as a result of the accident.
Children injured
Two children were transported to other medical facilities for treatment, one to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the other to the Bustamante Hospital for Children, both in Kingston.
According to the police, the accident occurred about 11:20 a.m. and involved a 2013 black Nissan Caravan, driven by Trevaun Reid of a Waterford, St Catherine, address.
“Twenty-three passengers were injured of which 16 are children and seven adults. The injured were transported to the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital with the help of the police, firefighters, and passing motorists,” the police reported.
Hospital sources confirmed that 24 people were taken to the hospital for treatment arising from the accident, an acknowledgement that the driver was among the injured.
The accident came during a festive weekend that over the past several years has seen a significant increase in the number of persons, especially from the Corporate Area, arriving in the resort town of Ocho Rios to celebrate Easter.
It was unclear where the crash victims were heading.
In the meantime, the police renewed their call to motorists and pedestrians to exercise caution on the road, especially during the busy Easter weekend, which concludes today.