Two people were killed and four others seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident along the Rosend main road in St Mary early yesterday morning.

Police say that 50-year-old Camieka Panton and Robby Beckford, 70, both of Islington in the parish, died of injuries they received when the Toyota Corolla motor car in which they and the other persons were travelling got out of control and overturned.

Police, late yesterday afternoon, could not confirm reports that Steve McKay, 31, the driver of the motor car, later succumbed to injuries he received during the accident.

According to Corporal Angella McTaggart, Constabulary Communications Network liaison officer for the parish, the accident occured shortly after 5:00 am, when McKay, heading from Islington to Annotto Bay, attempted to overtake another motor car in the vicinity of the Westmoreland Oval.

McKay, McTaggart said, lost control of the vehicle which overturned and skidded several feet with its occupants aboard.

The injured were taken to the Annotto Bay hospital where Panton and Beckford died and the others admitted.

“Some construction work is being done on that section of the roadway and because of that some sections are not level we believe that the uneven asphalt might have caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle and the subsequent accident. To make matters even worse, the vehicle was overloaded,” said McTaggart.

In the meantime, police in the parish were yesterday probing the murder of a truck operator on Thursday night.

The dead man has been identified as 33-year-old Ian Bedward, who was shot by a group of gunmen about 7:50 pm, shortly after making a delivery in the Bellfield Line district in the parish.

According to McTaggart, Bedward was leaving the community when four armed men stopped the vehicle and demanded money.

A scared Bedward, McTaggart said, tried to escape his attackers but was chased and shot in the head and lower back. He died on the spot.

Bedward’s killing comes two days after gunmen opened fire killing 50-year-old Courts Jamaica Limited delivery man, Steven Bartley in Kitson Town, St Catherine.

Like Bedward, Bartley was attacked and shot while leaving the community after making a delivery.