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ACP Gary McKenzie, Superintendent Ainsley McCarthy, and Dr Lucien Jones
The police say excessive speeding led to a gruesome crash Sunday morning on the Northcoast Highway, near Salt Marsh in Trelawny.
Five people, all passengers in a Hiace bus, died and seven others were hospitalised following the crash which occured sometime after 2.00 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie, Commanding Officer for the Public Safety Enforcement Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, told Radio Jamaica News that four men and a woman died in the crash.
He said the bus was traveling in a westerly direction, "when the driver, on reaching a left hand curve, failed to negotiate that curve, at a high speed, wen to the right of the roadway, off the roadway, collided with several palm trees and eventually crashed (into) a concrete light pole."
It appeared that the vehicle had "flipped over," he added.
The victims were removed from the wreckage by emergency teams from the Falmouth Hospital and Trelawny Fire Brigade.
Birthday party
Superintendent Ainsley McCarthy, who heads the Trelawny police division, told Radio Jamaica News that the victims were rushing to a birthday party in the parish of Hanover when the crash occurred.
He said the bus was traveling from Spanish Town, taking passengers to a birthday party in Hanover.
While not being having details concerning the party's exact location and related circumstances, Superintendent McCarthy noted that, with the crash occurring at 2:30 a.m., any attendance at a party at that time would have been illegal, since the cut-off time for parties, under normal circumstances, is 2:00 a.m., "unless an extension was granted."
He said he was unable to ascertain at that time whether any such extension had been granted.
This crash crash has pushed road fatalities in the parish of Trelawny since the start of the year to 15. This is six more than for the corresponding period last year.
Gains eroded
Vice Chair of the National Road Safety Council, Dr Lucien Jones, responding to news of the Trelawny crash, reported that the early gains made in reducing road fatalities has been eroded with a recent surge in deadly motor vehicle crashes.
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