ONE was missing — and presumed drowned — last night while two others were recovering in hospital, having been rescued from the swollen Rio Cobre into which their pick-up plunged yesterday while crossing the feared Flat Bridge in the Bog Walk gorge.

Police named the missing man as Paul Walker of Portmore, St Catherine. His rescued colleagues were Douglas Erskins of Long Bay, St James and Hylton Harrington, of Kingston.

Professional divers called-off the search for Walker and the black, four-wheel drive, Chevrolet Silverado truck yesterday afternoon, saying that strong currents in the river made a search difficult and dangerous.

“The current is too strong, very, very strong, to do anything,” said Knut Borstad, chief diver of the commercial diving outfit, Dive-Tech.

Borstad made two dives in the river and said afterwards: “I even wore extra weight and I can’t move around down there because the current is too heavy. We have to wait until the water goes down.”

They will try again today.

Apparently, the truck was being driven by Harrington across the 17th century, single lane, stone bridge that is notorious for its accidents, when Harrington lost control of the vehicle.

The Rio Cobre has been in spate from nearly a week of heavy rains that has caused floods and landslides and seven deaths.

According to Sergeant Everton Laidley of the Spanish Town police, the left front wheel of the truck, which was travelling north towards Linstead, apparently hit and mounted the low, spaced mounds which act as the bridge’s curb wall.

The vehicle plunged into the water and was quickly dragged by the heavy currents under the bridge and was swept downstream.

However, a vendor in the area, who claimed to have witnessed the 1:30 pm accident, gave a slightly different version of the events. He told the Observer that the driver swerved to avoid “a crack in the road” when the wheel hit the retaining mound and got out of control.

” … Swing from the crack cause it,” he said.

Devon McLaughlin, of Crescent, Spanish Town, said he and his friend, Harold Davis were among five men who dived into the raging waters to save Erskins and Harrington, but couldn’t rescue Walker.

“Five of us divers jumped into the water and pull out the two men,” McLaughlin said.

Davis said he knew that someone else was in the truck but it was not possible to reach him.

“One of the men cry out for help saying, ‘I can’t swim’, so I tried my best to save him,” Davis said. “We pumped water from his belly before the police come and take them to hospital. We rescue the two of them.”

The Flat Bridge, which, in normal times is considered to be hazardous, links the major route between Kingston, in the south, and Jamaica’s north coast. It was closed for several hours by the police yesterday to allow rescue operations.

The police have appealed to motorists to approach the Flat Bridge with care, but not panic.

Said Sergeant Laidley, a motorcycle cop who works traffic: “Don’t be intimidated by the bridge. Approach it cautiously and drive at a normal speed. The traffic lights there are working well. Please obey them.”