JUSTICE Leighton Pusey has sentenced Lloyd Dacres, 27, truck driver, of Lawrence Tavern, St. Andrew, to 12 months' imprisonment for causing death by reckless driving.
Dacres was charged with three counts of manslaughter but a Home Circuit Court jury found him guilty of the lesser offence. The judge sentenced Dacres to 12 months imprisonment on each count but the sentences are to run concurrently so he will serve 12 months.
THREE KILLED
The charges stemmed from a motor vehicle accident at Tom's River at the border of St. Andrew and St. Mary when three men were killed. The Crown, represented by Crown Counsel Dirk Harrison, led evidence that Dacres was driving a truck along the Tom's River, main road on January 23, 2003, when he began overtaking three motor vehicles. The truck he was driving hit Roy Mullings, of Tom's River, who was walking along the soft shoulder.
Witnesses testified that the truck then crashed into a bar, hitting Henry Martin, also of Tom's River, and Selvin Smith, of Dover Road, Portland. Both were inside the bar. The three men died as a result of the injuries they received. Dacres, in his defence denied overtaking any motor vehicles along the road. He said the accident was due to a mechanical defect.
