Black box revelation leaves defence for cabbie in ‘doubt’, chaos
Published:Saturday | June 8, 2024 | 12:10 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
A revelation that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) does not possess the equipment to access, or training to assess the black box of a Shacman truck involved in a crash that left five persons dead in Westmoreland last year has thrown the defence’s case into a tailspin.
The situation came to light in the Westmoreland Circuit Court yesterday in the case against 47-year-old Delroy Rodney, a taxi operator from Belmont in Westmoreland, who has been indicted on five counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
High Court Judge Justice Courtney Daye is presiding.
“I have been advised by the sergeant (Hopeton Cole, JCF Accident and Reconstruction Unit) that the Jamaica Constabulary Force does not have the equipment or the training at this time, to access the technology to assess the black box of this truck,” a female prosecutor said.
The prosecution further said the Accident and Reconstruction Unit of the JCF is to provide a letter outlining their conclusion in respect to the difficulty they face in this matter.
This development is expected to affect the defence and their client’s case as they were banking heavily on the black box report from the truck.
“Upon receipt of this information it has left me very concerned, almost bordering on suspicion because when they were to do the black box analysis on the Voxy, it was done within two weeks,” said Lambert Johnson, who along with Faith Salmon and Shanique Sommerville are representing Rodney.
He told The Gleaner that the prosecution’s statement in court on the police’s inability to analyse the truck’s black box has created some level of doubt.
“Certainly, it has created some doubt as to how culpable the accused man would be, because what we have coming out now is that the truck’s black box report will not be available to the defence and to the court,” Johnson said.
At the same time, Salmon expressed grave concerns about the manner in which the prosecution is handling the matter.
“We have requested this report for five months and 24 days now and it is just now that they are saying they don’t have the equipment and that persons are not trained, that’s not good enough,” she told The Gleaner.
On November 13, last year, Rodney, who owns and operates a Toyota Voxy as a public passenger vehicle, was driving when it collided with a white Shacman motor truck, killing five people who were passengers in his vehicle.
In February when the case was last mentioned, defence lawyers revealed that they had in their position a viral video of the accident which could implicate the truck driver.
At the time, Johnson had indicated that the driver of the truck should be held responsible for the accident and requested that the black box of his truck be tested to ascertain how fast it was travelling.
John Ralston, the managing director of Tank Weld Equipment, whose company became the sole dealer for Shacman trucks in Jamaica and the Caribbean in 2018, told The Gleaner that the Shacman trucks are fitted with two types of engines, and only the Cummings engine is equipped with a computer system. The other, the We Chi engine, he said, does not carry a computer system.
“We bring them in with two different engines. The Cummings engines have a computer on the truck that basically monitors the engine perimeter,” Ralston said. “If the truck breaks down, you can go into it and you can tell whether it was overheating, or whether the driver was over-revving the truck.
“It doesn’t tell you anything about braking, driving or how fast the driver was driving, nothing of that sort,” Ralston revealed in a Gleaner interview on Friday.
As it relates to the We Chi engine, Ralston said it’s very basic and that the technology applied is from about 30 years ago.
He also backed up the statement made by the JCF, pointing out that they do not have access to the technology to assess its trucks.
“They do not have the technology or anything to go into a Cummings computer in Jamaica. And I would say to you, that if it was the other engine box, they wouldn’t have access either,” Ralston added.
Rodney was slapped five charges of causing death by reckless driving arising from the death of 15-year-old schoolgirl Lavecia Forrester and her 39-year-old mother, Petrina Wallace, of Gordon district, Whitehouse, Westmoreland; Oneil Allen and his mother, 65-year-old Angela Samuel of Mount Edgecombe; and 54-year-old Janet Thompson of McAlpine.
As it relates to the state of the case file for trial, the prosecution has assured the court that all outstanding reports and statements including the postmortems for all five victims will be on the file ahead of the next mention date come October 28.
“The Crown has been informed that four of the postmortem reports have been collected and will be submitted to the court office for the file,” the prosecution told the court.
She said the report from the Accident and Reconstruction Unit of the JCF was submitted, and that this and all other statements will be served on defence counsel before the end of June.