By Robert Lalah, Staff Reporters
Clinton Copeland's distraught niece cries in disbelief outside the Four Paths Police Station in Clarendon yesterday after hearing that her 68-year-old uncle had died during a three-vehicle collision along the Bustamante Highway.
- Photos By Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
TWO PEOPLE were killed and four others hospitalised following a three-vehicle collison on the Bustamante Highway in Clarendon yesterday. The dead have been identified as 24-year-old Sasha Wilson and her 68-year-old uncle, Clinton Copeland.
The Police Traffic Division has listed the Bustamante Highway among a list of 17 'black spots' along the island's roadways, which has accounted for nearly a third of the 157 road accidents and 176 fatalities since January. Specifically, Bustamante High-way has accounted for seven accidents and nine deaths over this period.
The Four Paths police reported that a Suzuki Jimny motor vehicle that was being driven towards Kingston by Sasha Wilson, an attorney based in the United States, collided with a Honda Partner motor car that was travelling toward Mandeville, Man-chester. The Honda then hit an Isuzu van, which was laden with one ton of explosives to be used in mine-blasting.
DIED ON THE SPOT
Wilson and her uncle, who were travelling together, both died on the spot. Another of Wilson's uncles, who was also a passenger in the Suzuki Jimny, sustained injuries and was taken to the May Pen Hospital. Relatives of Ms. Wilson said she was on her way to the airport at the time of the accident.
Corporal Wayne Coleman of the Four Paths Police Station who pulled the bodies from the Suzuki Jimny said the collision was the worst he had seen in more than 20 years, adding that he believed speeding played a major role in the fatal crash.
"It seems to me that the Suzuki was travelling very fast. By my estimation it must have been travelling in excess of 95 kilometres per hour," he said.
Yesterday's accident brings to 157, the number of road accidents and 176, the number of people killed as a result, since January. This, however, represents a decrease compared with the same period last year when there were 198 accidents resulting in 220 fatalities.
Paula Fletcher, executive director of the National Road Safety Council, yesterday described the downward trend in traffic accidents and fatalities as encouraging.
Statistics obtained from the Police Traffic Headquarters showed that a total of 1,771 people lost their lives in the last five years as a result of traffic accidents. Pedestrians accounted for the majority of those killed. Other statistics obtained from the council showed that the country recorded the lowest number of fatalities in 1999 when 295 people died.
This was, however, short lived as the numbers went up the following year to 334 and increased further to 361 in 2001. In 2002, the number of road fatalities broke the 400 mark to reach 408. The numbers declined slightly in 2003 to 373. The police have identified excess speeding and in some instances, improper overtaking as the main causes of motor vehicle accidents.
BLACK SPOTS
As a result of the high number of
accidents, the police have labelled the following areas as accident-prone or 'black spots':
Norman Manley Highway,
Constant Spring Road,
Nelson Mandela Highway,
Spanish Town Road in the
Corporate Area,
Runaway Bay main road in St. Ann
Rose Hall main road in St. James
Orange Bay main road in Hanover
New Hope main road in
Westmoreland
Luana main road in St. Elizabeth
Chudleigh main road in Manchester
Sandy Bay, Hayes and Swansea,
part of Bustamante Highway
main roads in Clarendon
Old Harbour Road,
Ewarton and Causeway main roads
St. Catherine.
These roads account for 54 of the 176 people killed since January.
