Westmoreland taxi operator escapes prison time for crash that killed five people

   

Westmoreland taxi operator Delroy Rodney, who pleaded guilty to five counts of causing death by dangerous driving following a crash on the Bluefields main road in 2023, has escaped prison time.

 

Mr. Rodney was sentenced in the Westmoreland Circuit Court to 18 months imprisonment on each of the five counts, which are to run concurrently.

 

But the sentences were suspended for three years.

 

Additionally, he was ordered to pay $500,000 on each count to the surviving families of the five victims, totalling $2.5 million.

 

The sum must be paid by March 31.

 

As part of his sentencing, Mr. Rodney is not allowed to hold a driver's licence for the next three years.

 

Justice Courtney Daye, during sentencing, noted that while the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is five years imprisonment, Rodney was given a reduced sentence due to his early guilty plea, his expression of remorse, and his previous clean criminal record.

 

Mr. Rodney was arrested on November 15, 2023, two days after the Toyota Noah motor vehicle in which he was transporting passengers collided with a Shacman truck along the Bluefields main road in Westmoreland.

 

The five people who perished in the crash are 15-year-old schoolgirl Lavecia Forrester and her 39-year-old mother, Petrina Wallace, of Gordon district in Whitehouse; Oneil Allen and his mother, 65-year-old Angela Samuel, of Mount Edgecombe; and 54-year-old Janet Thompson, of a McAlpine address.