By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff ReporterSUNDAY, JUNE 6 had been a special day for Blanch Griffiths it was her birthday. The retired teacher was on her way to Port Royal to celebrate her 65th birthday, but she never made it.
Griffiths was one of three persons who perished in a motor vehicle accident Sunday night along the Norman Manley Highway in Kingston. The other victims are Dean Hutchinson, a 31-year-old pilot and André Bedward, 29.
Critically injured are Michelle Smith, a 27-year-old sales representative, and her 10-year-old sister, Venice Dias. At the accident scene yesterday, a bunch of flowers lay on the blood-stained asphalt where the victims died.
Reports are that Ms. Griffiths, her two nieces Smith and Dias, along with Bedward, were travelling in a green Honda Civic motor car that was being driven by Ms. Smith. The group was heading to a restaurant in Port Royal, where they had planned to celebrate Ms. Griffiths' birthday.
Mr. Hutchinson was travelling in a grey Isuzu Gemini motor car, heading towards Kingston. The police said both vehicles collided about three kilometres from the Harbour View roundabout. Members of the fire department were called in to cut the survivors from the Honda motor car.
Sergeant Gary McKenzie, the sub-officer in charge of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF) Accident Investigation Reconstruction Unit (AIRU), told The Gleaner yesterday that his unit was in the process of collecting blood samples of the drivers for forensic testing. "This is to determine the level of alcohol in the blood," said Sgt. McKenzie.
Preliminary investigations point to excessive speeding as the main cause of the accident. The AIRU has already collected the physical evidence from the scene and in another 14 days should be able to reconstruct the accident scene.
"We will be using the 'momentum method' to calculate the speed. By doing this, we will be able to describe the positions of the vehicles before the impact," Sgt. McKenzie told The Gleaner.
