A smash-up on Highway 2000 yesterday claimed the life of a cop, and left two of his colleagues injured, after a vehicle, that the traffic police alleged was speeding, hit the policeman and rammed into a parked patrol car.

Police corporal Lesley Smith was reportedly hoisted into the air and flung several feet away as he stood talking, with his back to the road, to the other policemen, identified as Sergeant Robert Sewell and Constable Richard Walker from the Highway Patrol Division.

The two occupants of the speeding car, a Rover licensed 9261 EE, sustained minor injuries. The accident occurred just days behind a statement by Road Safety Council officials, remarking on a slow-down in road fatalities. For the first time in six years, the lives claimed in motor vehicle accidents were below 300, said the council.

From Janaury 1 to December 14, police traffic department records show that there were 257 fatal accidents and 295 deaths. Corporal Smith, who was assigned to the Frankfield Police Station in Clarendon, was killed around 10:15 am, having stopped on the highway to speak to his colleagues.

The accident occurred about midway between the Spanish Town and the Portmore exits on the highway.

Smith was pronounced dead at the Spanish Town Hospital where his colleagues, and the two occupants of the other vehicle – the driver and his mother – were also treated.

Up to press time the Greater Portmore police, who are investigating the accident, had not released the name of the driver, saying investigations were ongoing and charges had not yet been laid.

Senior Superintendent in charge of the Traffic Division, Elan Powell, told the Sunday Observer that excessive speeding was the cause of the accident.

“Where the officers were standing along the highway, anyone could stand up to 300 metres away and see them. So that man must have been driving way above the speed limit to crash like that,” he said.

Corporal Smith had parked his 1994 Toyota Corolla in front of the police patrol car on the eastbound side of the highway and was standing by the patrol car with his back to the oncoming traffic on the soft shoulder of the roadway, talking to one of the patrol officers.

“Upon seeing the officers, the speeding motorist coming from the direction of May Pen, attempted to slow down and in the process lost control of the vehicle, hitting Corporal Smith about 25 metres up the road, killing him on the spot,” said Powell.

The out-of-control car then slammed into the highway patrol car, propelling it 50 metres, said Powell, and causing injury to the policeman seated inside and the other standing outside, before stopping on the median.

Yesterday afternoon, the mangled green Rover sat on the premises of the Bridgeport Police Station in St Catherine, and beside it, Corporal Smith’s bronze Toyota Corolla with a huge dent to the rear.

A large section of the Rover’s windshield was reduced to splinters while its entire front section was damaged.

Inside the crashed vehicle, one foot of heavy-duty shoe, apparently belonging to the driver, was seen on the floor below the driver’s seat. On the dashboard, in the vicinity of the front passenger seat, hung a blood-stained deflated white airbag.

Only a few feet away, a unit from Century Wrecker Service unloaded the third vehicle that was involved in the accident – the Chevrolet highway patrol car bearing the licence number 20 3326.

“The damaged patrol car is one of the newly acquired Chevrolet Impalas used exclusively on the Highway,” said Powell.

According to the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), the police information arm, Smith’s death brings to 13 the number of police officers who have died since the start of 2005.