DEATH rode the highways yesterday, claiming five persons and leaving nine others battling for life in hospital, after the overcrowded public passenger minibus in which they were travelling overturned on Highway 2000, in one of the bloodiest accidents so far this year.

One unidentified woman died on the spot while the other four persons, all from Manchester, succumbed to their injuries on the way to the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine.

The other four persons are bus driver Callimore Dawkins, 42, of Coffee Grove, Manchester; Ernest Levy of Christiana; Milton Levy, 33, of Greenvale, Manchester and another unidentified woman.

“The bus got out of control, overturned and ended up in the middle of the road. One woman died on the spot after she was thrown from the vehicle,” Sergeant Jeffery McDonald of the Ferry Traffic Department said at the scene of the accident.

Bits of personal articles and parts of the vehicle that came apart when it careened off course, cluttered the usually clear highway, evidence of the carnage.

Large numbers of onlookers parked their cars to bear morbid witness to one of the worst accidents on Jamaica’s most modern thoroughfare and to hear tales about the blood-curdling screams from the bus as it flipped over and skidded on its top, on what critics have dubbed the “doomsday highway”.

Police told the Observer that at about 1:30 pm, the white minibus was travelling westerly on the highway from Kingston to Mandeville, with about 14 persons on board when, on reaching the White Water Housing Scheme near May Pen, the left rear tyre blew out, causing the vehicle to skid violently out of control and overturn.

The usually brisk traffic on the highway slowed to a crawl for several hours as members from the Highway Patrol and a unit from the Jamaica Fire Brigade worked frantically to clear the wreckage.

At the Spanish Town hospital, a nurse on duty told the Observer that the dead persons had suffered severe lacerations to the head, broken bones and profuse bleeding, while the injured persons were nursing fractured bones and severe chest pains.

Those receiving treatment are Manchester residents Claudia Wheatley, 32; Rosanne Morris, 23; Juliet Garrick, 40; Adolphus Smith, 48 and Clanson Brown, 59. With chest injuries are Delroy Gayle, 32 of Albert Town, Trewlany; Harry Clarke, 44; Lenford Campbell, 34, and Karen Pusey, 28, of St Elizabeth.

Outside the accident and emergency section of the hospital yesterday, grief-stricken family members, fretful friends and curious onlookers gathered, awaiting the grim news about the victims.

In the meantime, Sergeant McDonald yesterday urged bus operators to desist from overloading their buses and advised motorists to use the proper tyres for their vehicles to prevent the likelihood of accidents.

“On a monthly basis, accidents are caused by defective tyres. Drivers should ensure that they use the proper tyres, especially since this is a high-speed roadway.”

Meanwhile, about six other persons sustained minor injuries in a separate accident yesterday on the highway – roughly two miles away. No one was fatally injured.

The vehicular smash-up, which happened at about 2:00 pm, involved a white public passenger minibus which plies the Kingston to Savanna-la-Mar route and a brown Toyota Corolla motor car. Dorett Daley, the wife of the driver of the motor car, Don Daley, who was travelling in the front passenger seat, suffered a broken leg.

The motor car was severely damaged, while the front of the minibus was crushed inwards. The injured bus passengers, who suffered cuts and bruises, were taken to the Spanish Town hospital. Both drivers were unhurt.

– reidt@jamaicaobserver.com