OCHO ROS, St Ann – The driver and four of his passengers were killed and 13 others injured yesterday afternoon when a Toyota Hiace minibus plying the Brown’s Town to Ocho Rios route slammed into a truck along the Llandovery main road here in St Ann. Four of the dead were last night identified as:

. bus driver Marklyn Gibbs, a resident of Pimento Walk in Ocho Rios;

. Lamar Finnigan, 17, a student of the Brown’s Town Community College;

. Nicola Jarrett, 21, of Windsor Road in St Ann’s Bay; and

. Monique Blair, whose address was not ascertained.

There were conflicting reports last night as to how the deadly crash occurred.

One report suggested that the bus, licensed PD 0275 and heading east towards St Ann’s Bay, was overtaking a line of traffic along the wet road when the driver, in an effort to avoid a head-on collision, slammed into the back of the truck heading in the same direction, as he tried to squeeze back into the line.

Another report claimed the truck had stopped along the roadway when the bus slammed into the back.

“We’re still trying to put the pieces together,” an investigating officer at the St Ann’s Bay police traffic department told the Observer last night.

Steve Brown, information officer for Operation Kingfish, said that four persons – the driver and three women – died instantly.

“.It took us at least 45 minutes to cut [one person] out with the assistance of the fire brigade,” he told the Observer approximately two hours after the accident.

The deadly crash is said to have occurred at approximately 4:00 pm on a strip considered to be a black spot that had seen several such accidents since the start of the year.

Eleven people, including those involved in yesterday’s accident, have died on that strip since the start of the year.

Yesterday’s accident caused traffic to back up in both directions for more than a mile and left hundreds of commuters stranded in nearby Ocho Rios and Brown’s Town.

“It’s chaos here, it’s madness,” said a female motorist.

Meanwhile, firefighters, a team of police and members of the Jamaica Defence Force who were called to the scene were also hampered by the snarl which was compounded by afternoon showers.

The accident sent shock waves throughout nearby communities, and residents again raised concerns about the manner in which motorists use the recently-paved North Coast Highway. Last year, road fatalities on the strip saw a sharp increase over the previous year.

Only last April, four market vendors were killed and five others injured in the same vicinity when the truck in which they were travelling, plunged into a ditch while on its way to the popular ‘Bend Down’ market in Falmouth, Trelawny.

Many of the persons who had gathered at the scene yesterday could not contain their anger and criticised minibus drivers whom they said continued to drive recklessly on the road.

“The driver dem fi dead to!” shouted one woman, who appeared happy on learning that the minibus driver was among the dead.

Another Ocho Rios woman, whose son has been awarded a place at the York Castle High School in Brown’s Town in the recent Grade Six Achievement Test, vowed not to send him on public passenger vehicles.

“Di driver dem drive too reckless, mi haffi get a private bus fi sen him pon,” she said.

-Additional reporting by Karyl Walker