A student of the Ewarton High School was killed yesterday and five other people, including three other students from the high school, were seriously injured in a crash along a section of the Ewarton main road known as ‘Cross Road’.

The crash involved a grey Toyota Caldina motor car, operated as a taxi, and a Leyland truck, owned by Columbus Supplies, a local hardware outfit. According to the Ewarton police, the taxi, driven by a man identified as Marlon Smith, skidded on a patch of gravel, careened to the right and slammed into the truck at about 8:00 in the morning.

Police named the dead student as Aldene Brown, 14. Three of her schoolmates – Vanessa Richard, 15, Shelly Richards, 15, and Tasha Reid-Davis, 16 – received serious injuries.

Alistair Welch, 17, who was also a passenger in the ill-fated taxi, and the driver of the motor car also received serious injuries.

The driver of the truck, the police said, received minor injuries in the accident.

Yesterday, Ewarton High School principal Leslie Mair told the Observer that students and teachers were saddened after getting the bad news.

The injured students, Mair said, were on their way to school for the morning shift when the accident happened.

The principal said that persons visited the school and offered prayers for Brown’s family and the other injured students, and that personnel from the Ministry of Education were to arrive later to provide counselling for the students.

Transport Minister Bobby Pickersgill, who is also the member of parliament for North West St Catherine, expressed his condolences to Brown’s friends and family, and wished a speedy recovery to the other injured persons.

He said, in a statement, that the accident was being thoroughly investigated by the police to determine the cause.