Old Harbour police mourn loss of colleague in motor vehicle crash

Great colleague, wonderful father, a fine sense of humour were some of the ways colleagues and friends of Constable Carl Bailey described him.

"It hurts to the core," said Sergeant Princess Bayliss, who is still having trouble accepting that Bailey is really gone.

Bailey, who was attached to the Old Harbour Police Station in St Catherine, was killed early yesterday morning in a motor vehicle accident. He was driving his blue Toyota Corolla car along the P.J. Patterson Highway, and upon reaching the vicinity of the May Pen toll booth, he lost control of the vehicle, which hit the left embankment and overturned.

He was thrown from the car and run over by passing vehicles, which dragged him for another 10 metres.

"He was one of the youngest members of the team here, but anywhere he is working, he makes his presence felt," Bayliss shared.

Bailey, who hailed from Four Paths in Clarendon, was said to be totally devoted to his three-year-old daughter.

"There is not a day that you don't hear him bragging about her or saying that he has to take a special package for her," said his colleague.

She said that he would also reach out to his fellow police officers who are also fathers, urging them to take good care of their children. Bailey would also recommend that they plan in advance for their children's education.

DEEP SENSE OF LOSS

Inspector Simon McCormack, who described Bailey as his son, said there were no words to express the loss.

"Bailey, I feel, is someone who doesn't know the word no. He is one who goes above and beyond the call of duty," he said.

McCormack said that what he most admired about him was the way he could change the mood of any gathering the minute he entered the room.

"By just coming into a room, he would pop a joke and the mood became a jovial one," he told The Gleaner.

Acting Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake described Bailey's passing as a "deep sense of loss". Referring to it as "an untimely passing", he said that his death has left everyone in mourning.