JERMAINE COUSIN'S death in a traffic accident in Old Harbour on Monday has cast a pall of gloom over the St. Catherine High School.
Yesterday, many teachers and students were apparently unable to come to grips with the fact that the youngster they saw leaving school Monday afternoon was dead.
According to the police, Jermaine and at least two other children were travelling in a Suzuki Frontier motor vehicle which collided with a Toyota Corolla motorcar along the Old Harbour main road.
According to Sergeant Everton Laidley of the Spanish Town Police Traffic Department, the driver of the Suzuki Frontier, 34-year-old Owen Wayne Bennett, a mechanic of Red Hills Road, Kingston 19, died on the spot.
It is alleged that Mr. Bennett went to Old Harbour to complete a job. He reportedly picked up Jermaine at the St. Catherine High School. Police probing the matter were unable to confirm if the teenager was related to him.
The police said after Monday's accident, four other people were hospitalised in serious, but stable conditions. Contacted yesterday, the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) said no one else had died.
Reports are that about 1:00 p.m., Mr. Bennett was travelling along Old Harbour Road in a Suzuki Frontier motorcar when it reportedly collided with a Toyota Corolla station wagon taxi. The police said Mr. Bennett died on the spot.
Since January, 176 persons have been killed in 158 traffic accidents.
