14 year-old driver killed in crash
OCHO RIOS, St Ann – A 14 year-old ninth grade student of Westwood High School in Stewart Town, Trelawny, died early yesterday morning after the vehicle she was driving overturned along the Dunn’s River main road in St Ann.
Crystal Brown was said to be giving two classmates a ride home when the accident occurred. She had spent time with her schoolmates on Sunday.
The young girl, who was from Cardiff Hall in Runaway Bay, was pronounced dead at the St Ann’s Bay hospital after the 1999 Altezza motorcar she was driving got out of control and overturned at about 1:35 yesterday morning.
“The motorcar was proceeding at an excessive speed when the driver lost control, the car ran off the road and overturned,” Constabulary Communication Network liaison officer for St Ann Stacy Hawkins told the Observer.
The two other young girls travelling in the car with Brown were taken to the St Ann’s Bay hospital where one was admitted in a stable condition and the other treated and released. Their names have not been released by the police.
Yesterday afternoon, an obviously-shaken Eileen Piggott, the principal at Westwood High, said the entire school was grieving as a result of the tragedy. The guidance counsellor and the trauma team were actively involved in assisting the students to cope with the situation, she added.
“The school is calm at this time,” Piggott said.
The St Ann police traffic department is investigating the accident.
The motorcar in which the three girls were travelling, licensed 4228 DX, is said to belong to Crystal’s father Karl Brown, who is a businessman with interests in the Brown’s Town area of St Ann.
The police could not say how the teenager came in possession of the car and the family could not be reached for comment.
Under Jamaican law, provisional drivers licences are not issued to persons below the age of 17 and holders of drivers’ permits must not be behind the wheels unless there is a licenced driver in the vehicle with them.
Vehicle owners who knowingly allow an unlicenced driver to drive their vehicle without supervision are liable to face criminal charges.
