4 family members killed in road crash

BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, January 05, 2012

FOUR members of one family, including a two-year-old boy, died yesterday in a motor vehicle accident along the Old Harbour Main Road in St Catherine. They have been identified as 45-year-old Marie Myrie-Phillips, her son Garina Dixon, 27, his wife Diane Dixon, 32, and their child Nekeil.

The Dixons and their two-year-old child were visiting from Canada. Myrie-Phillips, in the meantime, lived in Willowdene, St Catherine.

According to the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), Garina was driving a Toyota Corolla motor car, with the three others aboard, towards Spanish Town when the vehicle collided head-on with an International truck that was travelling in the opposite direction. The accident occurred at the Horizon Park intersection.

"The Toyota Corolla motor car was extensively damaged and its occupants sustained multiple injuries and were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead. The driver of the motor truck however was not injured," the CCN said.

Family members told the Observer the child had developed breathing complications while at home and was being taken to the Spanish Town Hospital for treatment.

"The father, in a desperate bid to save the child, jumped into his Toyota motor car with his wife and mother and rushed out to reach the hospital, unaware that the trip would be their last," a grieving family member told the Observer after the crash.

One family member said the victims had to be cut from the crumpled vehicle.

The news of the deaths was especially hard for Myrie-Phillips's husband, Gerald, who had reached home just a few minutes after the family left for the hospital.

"Upon reaching home, he saw that his wife left her phone and was rushing to bring the instrument to her when he saw the mangled wreck and later learnt that his family members were victims of the crash," said a family friend, who disclosed that he has since been admitted to hospital after suffering from a nervous breakdown.

Philip Chamberlain, a long-time friend of Garina, said that it was only Tuesday that he assisted a group of people who were involved in an accident.

"He did not know the victims in the accident, but that was just the type of people they were, always loving and caring," said Chamberlain.

Yesterday scores of residents who had gathered at the home of the victims wept openly.

Meantime, the accident resulted in a huge pile-up of traffic along the Old Harbour main road.

The deaths brought to eight the number of persons who had died on the roads during the first four days of the year.

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4 family members killed in road crash