WILFRED Gayle, a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) bus driver, died in hospital last night after being shot earlier in the day by vengeful cronies of a motor cyclist who was killed in a road accident with Gayle’s bus.

Last night, the transport minister, Robert Pickersgill, expressed condolences to Gayle’s family and said he hoped that the police would swiftly bring his murderers to justice.

“My personal sorrow is deepened by the fact that Mr Gayle’s death was due to vengeance that was meted out by cowardly persons,” Pickersgill said in a statement.

Police said the accident occurred at about mid-day when the bus, being driven by 51 year-old Gayle on the Spanish Town to Half-Way-Tree route, collided with 29 year-old Ricardo Bogle’s red Honda motor cycle at the intersection of Moreton Park Terrace and Molynes Road.

Bogle, who lived at 18 Vereen Avenue off Cassia Park Road in the same area the accident occurred, died on the spot.

Police said that Gayle, who did not stop, told them he was trying to get to the Half-Way-Tree Police Station to report the accident. However, he was chased by two of Bogle’s friends, who were also riding motor cycles, and shot in his chest.

The injured bus driver managed to take the bus as far as the intersection of Molynes and Sayres roads, about 150 metres from the accident, before the bus rammed into an empty bus stop, crushing its soft aluminum frame and damaging the wall to O A Thompson Trucking and Blocks Limited.

After the bus crashed, Gayle was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital by Transport Authority employees who were travelling along Molynes Road and saw the bus veering.

“We were driving in our Transport Authority Unit on Molynes Road and saw the bus swerving,” said Diana Patterson, senior inspector at the Transport Authority. “He (Gayle) was crying for pain and then the bus crashed into a wall, so we took him in our vehicle and then signalled a policeman to stop to give us escort to take him to the hospital.”

Yesterday, two different versions of how the accident occurred were given to the Observer. The JUTC said the mishap was caused by Bogle after he swung into the path of the Number 21 bus, which was heading to Half-Way-Tree.

However, a man who did not wish to be named said: “Somebody did stop to give the bike man way and the bus man just come down the road and kill him. Dem drive too hard pon the road.”

The JUTC also said that after the accident, Gayle was attacked by “a hostile crowd, some of whom threw stones into the bus”.

The state-run transport agency said, too, it had to reroute other buses — numbers 47, 21, 21A, and 75 — from Molynes Road after they were stoned, apparently by irate members of Bogle’s community.

As large crowds gathered at both accident scenes, the police had to divert traffic from Molynes Road, while Bogle’s body, covered with cardboard, lay on the road near to his bike up to an hour after the accident.

“Why dem caan tek him up, man?” asked one of Bogle’s old school friends between sobs.

Sergeant Steve Brown of the Constabulary Communication Network explained that the body had not been moved because the police were awaiting the arrival of their photographer, as well as the funeral home staff.

Bogle’s mother, Sandra Davis, who came to look at her son, became hysterical and had to be calmed by relatives and the police.

Meanwhile, at the spot where the bus crashed, the vehicle’s engine was still throttling, hazard lights were on, and the windshield was completely smashed.

Drops of blood were seen on the steps of the bus.

Yesterday, police said that one man believed to be involved in the shooting has been arrested and is to face an identification parade later this week.

In the past, JUTC bus crews have been the victims of violent attacks and many of the company’s buses have been damaged by either rocks, bullets or, in one case, firebombs.