FALMOUTH, Trelawny - Twenty-five-year-old Mark Amos pleaded not guilty to charges of five counts of causing death by dangerous driving when he appeared in the Falmouth Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

He was initially charged with five counts of manslaughter but the charge was modified when he appeared in court.

Amos who is of a Mahoe Drive, Kingston 6 address was granted bail in the sum of $1million by Resident Magistrate Icolyn Reid.

As a condition of his bail, the accused was asked to surrender his travel documents and drivers license.

Attorney at law Suzette Hill made the bail application on Amos' behalf.

He is scheduled to return to court on September 27.

Amos was charged following an accident in Trelawny last Friday in which five persons, including a mother and daughter, were killed while three others were hospitalised after a three-vehicle crash along the North Coast Highway in the section of Martha Brae.

The deceased were identified as: 47-year-old Marion Johnson, a masseuse of Discovery Bay, St Ann; her daughter Alicia Hussey, 25, a waitress of Standfast district in Brown's Town, also in St Ann; Odaine Mullings, 23, a truck driver also of a St Ann address; Roary McKenzie, 21, an entertainer of a St Catherine address; and Fitzroy Hawthorne, 44, a taxi driver of Kinloss in Trelawny.

Police reported that the accident, which occurred about 1:15 am, involved a Toyota Hiace mini-bus, a Toyota Caldina motor car, and a Ford Explorer pickup truck.

According to the police, Amos was driving the pickup truck along the highway towards Montego Bay when he overtook the mini-bus, then slammed head on with the motor car which was travelling in the opposite direction.

Four of the seven persons travelling in the Caldina motor car reportedly died on the spot and three were taken to hospital, one of whom subsequently died while undergoing treatment.