Mandeville, Manchester – A 10-tonne truck, which police believe may have been carrying as much as 30 tonnes of lumber, crashed on the Gutters/Pepper main road in St Elizabeth late Saturday killing six people, all of Darliston in Westmoreland.

Police yesterday identified the dead as the owner and driver of the vehicle, businessman Clifton Bowen, and his workers Aldene Beadle, 30; Kipling Bent, 16; Recton Gayle, 26; Carlos Smellie, 22; and Arthur Ricketts, 21.

Police say the first five died on the spot, while Ricketts succumbed to his injuries sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 am yesterday.

The 16-year-old Bent was said to be a high school student earning his “lunch money” to resume school today.

Two others, Kadian Grant, 21, of Darliston and Steve Baker, 38, of Lennox Big Woods, also in Westmoreland, escaped with broken bones and bruises and were admitted to hospital.

In early afternoon yesterday at the scene of the accident – on a steep incline 300 metres below the gas station at the intersection of the Gutters main road and the turn-off to Nain – debate raged as to what may have been the final trigger for the disaster.

Some suggested Bowen may have fallen asleep. Others were adamant that it was simply a matter of mechanical failure.

At bottom line, all agreed that the 10-tonne truck travelling towards Santa Cruz, which crashed into a bush-covered stone embankment sometime after 11:00 pm, was carrying far too much weight.

Investigating officer Sergeant Ian Lawrence of the Santa Cruz Police Traffic Department, believes there may have been as much as 30 tonnes of “green lumber”, in addition to the eight people aboard the truck. Others suggested the load may have been even heavier.

Lawrence said that from talking to the two survivors, he developed the impression that the truck, burdened by the heavy load, may have simply “jumped out of gear”.

The truck had apparently picked up its load earlier in the day from Wait-a-bit in the hills of Trelawny and was on its way back home to Westmoreland. Police investigators say Bowen was carrying documents which gave him license to reap lumber in the Wait-a-bit area.

Ironically, the truck had completed the treacherous Pen Hill road in Manchester and just moments before disaster struck, had survived the even more infamous Spur Tree Hill.

Police investigators and locals suggest that in the end the truck simply buckled under the pressure.

At the death scene in the early afternoon yesterday, all but bits and pieces of the many tonnes of lumber had disappeared – taken by passersby and residents. But 30-40 feet of tyre marks – in a straight line headed for the rocks – told their own story.

The body of the truck climbed the stone embankment – over eight feet high at one point – crushing the shrubbery before falling back on to the road in a crumpled heap.

Pieces of the vehicle were strewn around and across the road. Pieces of what appeared to be human flesh, agricultural produce, including yam and bits of lumber, littered the area.

A small fire which residents say they lit to consume “debris”, including bits of human remains, still smouldered.

There were apparently no eyewitnesses to the immediate impact but residents, some as close as 100 metres away, leapt in fright at the huge, prolonged “explosion” described by Michael Smith who had just arrived home from work as “boom de dem boom boom!!”.

Marsha Findlay, who lives just a few metres from her roadside bar, said she was on her cell phone at the time, and thought her bar had been destroyed.

“Mi sey ‘Jesus Christ di shop mash up’, den mi run out and realise is roun’ di corner it happen,” said Findlay yesterday.

Those who ran to the scene found a horror story. Those in the cab of the truck – perhaps as many as three – had died on impact, their bodies crushed. Others were pinned between the body of the truck and the embankment, with large quantities of the lumber tumbling down all over them.

” I never see anything like that,” said Osbourne Mattis, who was among those early on the scene. “Hand cut off, foot cut off, fingers cut off. truck body to one side and the cab crumple up like when you grind up stone,” he said, shaking his head.

Residents say they did their best to help – pulling the lumber away to get to the victims.

They had special praise for one ‘Prex’ Gayle – all dressed up to go to a party – who they say went out of his way to help.

“He kept asking drivers to take the injured people to hospital,” recalled ‘Opal’ who declined to give her full name.

Some motorists refused. In the end it was a ‘Super Save’ truck that heeded Gayle’s pleas and took the injured off to hospital, she said.

Lawrence told the Observer that the road from Gutters to Santa Cruz has already had more than its fair share of death this year – four fatal accidents and 10 deaths.

– myersg@jamaicaobserver.com