Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer
Three persons were killed along the Mandela Highway yesterday after this Toyota Mark II motor car collided with this Real Rock International truck. All three victims were travelling in the car. - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
THREE PERSONS died in a monster crash along the Mandela Highway in St. Catherine yesterday while one man was miraculously pulled from the crumpled wreckage and was clinging to life in hospital up to press time.
Reports reaching The Gleaner are that four men were in a Toyota Mark II motor car travelling in a westerly direction towards Spanish Town when, on reaching a section of the road near the Ferry Police Station, the car collided with a median. The driver lost control of the vehicle which swerved on to the opposite side of the road into the path of a truck going towards Kingston.
MANGLED METAL
The truck smashed into the car with such force that it pushed the ill-fated vehicle for more than 100 metres, before the right side of the truck rolled over the bonnet of the car, reducing it to a twisted heap of mangled metal.
Three of the occupants were killed instantly while a fourth person was cut from the wreckage and taken to the Spanish Town Hospital.
Two of the men have been identified as 18-year-old Simeon Barnett, ducoman of Portmore Pines, Portmore, St. Catherine and Lambert Brown, 28, autobody repairman of Silverstone, Portmore, also in St. Catherine.
A man known only as 'Bunny' was transferred from the Spanish Town Hospital to the Kingston Public Hospital while the identity of the driver of the ill-fated motor car was not ascertained at press time last night.
When the news team visited the area, scores of curious onlookers had converged on the scene. Most expressed shock that anyone could have survived the accident, given the savagely twisted hunk of metal that lay under the wheels of the truck.
According to investigating officer Corporal Lloyd Wellington of the St. Catherine South Traffic Department, "The Mark II motor car was reportedly speeding. It is said that speed kills and I am taking the opportunity to warn motorists to drive more responsibly," he said.
The accident snarled traffic in the vicinity of the Mandela Highway for several miles on both sides of the dual carriageway for several hours. The traffic situation actually forced some motor vehicles to turn around and head in the direction from which they were coming.
Up to press time, the identity of the men had not been ascertained. Yesterday's fatalities brought the number of persons killed in motor vehicle accidents since January to 252 from 223 accidents. This compares with 291 deaths for the corresponding period last year from 257 accidents.
