‘I prayed he would live’

The desperate hopes of a daughter that her father had somehow survived a crash incident in which his vehicle slammed into a tree in St Thomas were crushed following a call from the police to notify the family of his death.

Seventy-four-year-old Bensford Bogle of Newland, St Thomas, died after his Toyota Corolla motor car ran off the road and crashed into trees along the Pondside main road on Friday morning.

Reports are that the elderly man, who is a well-known taxi operator in the area, had dropped off a passenger and exited his car, leaving the engine running. Upon re-entering the vehicle, he is believed to have stepped on the accelerator, causing the car to speed off.

Bogle was pinned down by a tree after the crash and was freed from the wreckage by a team from the Yallahs Fire Station. He was rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital in parish capital Morant Bay, where he was pronounced dead.

Moments before the news of his death circulated, family members and residents who had gathered at the scene comforted each other, hoping for the best.

One of his daughters, Dianne, told The Sunday Gleaner that she was at home when a friend called to alert her that her father had been in an accident.

“Same time mi leave out to come out here, and the first thing that came to my mind is that Daddy can’t dead; Daddy has to live. Mi nah ask nobody. I know Daddy is going to live,” she shared.

Her hopes, along with prayers for mercy, and questions from curious bystanders permeated the morning air as firefighters and police officers worked feverishly to save the life of the taxi operator.

“I prayed he would live,” she said.

‘SLOW DRIVER’

One of Bogle’s regular passengers, Lascelle Hall, told The Sunday Gleaner that he had exited the vehicle moments before his usual driver met his demise.

“I came home in the taxi and he dropped me off at my gate here. I came out the car, and while walking to my gate, I heard the car move off and started going across the road. I came down here to see what happened, and I saw his neck pinned to the tree,” Hall shared.

Fellow taxi operator Kemar Grant, who described the incident as “strange”, said Bogle had been plying the Yallahs route for many years and was known to the community as a “slow driver”.

“From mi going primary school, because him used to carry mi, everybody know him as a slow driver. Ask anybody ‘bout Bogle. Dem always a curse that him drive too slow on the road, so it just sad to know is this come reach him,” Grant said.

Up to Friday morning, there had been 439 road fatalities since the start of the year, according to the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport. Some 392 fatal crashes had also been recorded. This represent seven per cent increases in both deaths and fatal crashes, when compared with the corresponding period up to December 10 in 2020.

shanna.monteith@gleanerjm.com