Glenroy Sinclair, Staff ReporterSIX PERSONS, including three young children, lost their lives in a motor vehicle accident in the Scotts Cove district, Westmoreland.
Up to yesterday afternoon the victims were still unidentified. Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, head of the Police Traffic Division, Senior Superintendent Ealan Powell, said the car and the bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
"It is going to take some time before the victims can be identified," said SSP Powell.
A report from the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) liaison officer for Westmoreland, Woman Constable Tahomozene Foster, are that about 2:00 a.m. a passing motorist reported seeing a motor car on fire in a precipice. He called the police, who immediately alerted the fire department. Emergency vehicles then rushed to the scene, but by then it was too late.
The blaze was put out by a unit from the Black River Fire Department, while the charred remains were removed from the wreckage after the cooling-down operation was completed.
According to the police, the car was a white Toyota Corolla. It was registered to the Jamaica Labour Party headquarters. Contacted yesterday, a Corporate Area JLP Member of Parliament, who spoke on the terms of anonymity, said he could not recall any such vehicle owned by the party.
SECOND MAJOR ACCIDENT
"Unless it is one of those cars that they used in the last general election and did not return it," said the MP.
This is second major motor vehicle accident in less than a week. On Monday, six persons perished along the Bogwalk Gorge in St. Catherine. SSP Powell said overload and speeding were the main causes of both accidents.
"The Toyota motor car in yesterday's accident was licensed to carry five persons and the vehicle was carrying six," said SSP Powell.
BURST INTO FLAMES
Sergeant Gary McKenzie of the Accident Investigation Reconstruction Unit (AIRU) said the accident occurred about 110 metres west of the border of St. Elizabeth. He said the driver was heading towards Whitehouse when he attempted to negotiate a left turn. The vehicle went into a ditch, overturned and burst into flames.
The Sunday Gleaner understands that another motor vehicle accident claimed the lives of two persons on Christmas Eve on the Oxford main road in St. Elizabeth.
