Dam Bridge, Portland – A truck taking 20 market vendors and their goods to Kingston plunged 30 metres over a precipice at Dam Bridge in Portland Friday night, killing 14 people, sending shockwaves across the country and leaving relatives in four Portland districts in mourning.

The dead are:

. Sandra Dyce and her 10-year-old son Nieko Palmer of Milbank;

. Beverly Bernard (Milbank);

. Winston ‘Penalise’ Taylor (Milbank);

. Leroy ‘Peeth’ Deans (Milbank);

. Ancita ‘Dimples’ Anderson (Milbank);

. Carmen ‘May May’ Leslie (Milbank);

. Beverly ‘Bessie’ Johnson (Milbank)

. Joyce Scott and her 21-year-old son Feston Telfer from Comfort Castle;

. Clarita Fuller (Comfort Castle);

. Aaron ‘Chippe’ Lewis (Comfort Castle);

. Fay Dillon (Ginger House); and

. Lynford Rogers (Seaman’s Valley).

Hospitalised at Port Antonio are Joyce Whyte and Novelette Fuller of Comfort Castle, Veronica Cochrane of Cornwall Barracks, and Balford Richards of Moore Town, while Linford Jackson, who was pinned by the lid of the truck, is in the St Ann’s Bay Hospital with a broken leg and broken hand.

Two other passengers in the truck, Headley Evans and Desrick Fuller, were treated and sent home.

Up to last night, no one could say definitively what caused the tragedy, regarded as one of the worst in Jamaica’s history. What is certain is that it occurred some time after 8:00 pm and that the truck ran backwards into the ravine.

“I don’t know what happened, but I just felt the truck carrying me down the hill, down the gully,” said Desrick Fuller, who works on the truck. “When I came back up, mi foot start tremble.”

The driver of the truck apparently fled.

Scores of people converged on the scene shortly after the accident and helped pull the survivors to safety.

Yesterday, their gallant efforts were praised by Prime Minister Bruce Golding who visited the scene shortly after mid-day.

“I commend all the citizens in this area,” said Golding. “The accident happened in the night. It took some time before the emergency services personnel got here. The citizens took it upon themselves, they went down and rescued those who were injured and still alive, they pulled out the bodies of those who had died and if you look yourself you would see how steep that slope is and slippery. They didn’t have any lights, they were using bottle torches and the citizens of this community deserve to be commended for the way in which they rallied. It is at times like these when we are confronted with tragedies like these that the real goodness of the Jamaican people comes to the fore, and I want to pay tribute to them for this tremendous effort that they have made.”

He expressed condolences to the families that lost loved ones and to the people who were injured and pledged that the Government would be providing assistance to the victims.

“I have asked Minister [Daryl] Vaz to co-ordinate with the members of the various families to see what assistance Government will need to provide,” said Golding. “I am making contact with the head of the national church organisation, the Council of Churches, the Evangelical Association, the Pentecostal Association to ask them to mobilise their members in this area to provide some counselling to the families. They are going to need that sort of strength and moral support at this time.”

Pihl, the Danish firm contracted to build the Ocho Rios to Portland leg of the Northcoast highway, and the Jamaica Public Service provided cranes to pull the truck from the ravine at approximately 11:15 am yesterday, while the emergency services worked efficiently to take the injured to hospital and recover the dead in an effort co-ordinated by the police.

Friday night’s disaster brings to 324 the number of road deaths recorded so far this year from 279 collisions. Last year, a total of 333 persons died in 285 collisions.

Yesterday, Leon Palmer was in tears as Prime Minister Golding tried to comfort him. Palmer’s mother Sandra Dyce, his son Nieko, and the mother of his brother’s baby all died in the mishap.

“Lord God, a wha mi a go do, mi mother dead, mi breda baby mother an mi son dead,” he cried.

Nadisha Higgins, who lost four members of her family, was equally distraught. “Mi mother dead, the little boy a mi cousin, and all a dem. When mi hear mi just feel shock an mi body start tremble. Me just start tremble but no tears caan come. Mi just a try keep up,” she said.

Michelle Cochrane lost her brother – Feston Telfer, while her mother, Joyce Whyte, is in hospital.

Melissa McGregor, whose grandmother, Clarita Fuller, died, was moved to tears. “When I just heard about the news I thought it was a joke, so I had to call up and down to confirm it. I went to see her Monday. It is just unbelievable,” said McGregor whose aunt, Novelette Fuller, was among those injured and admitted to hospital.

Yesterday afternoon, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller went to the scene and expressed condolences to the affected families.

“It is sad… for me it’s a heartbreaking incident. It’s painful,” Simpson Miller told the Observer. She said she hoped the Government’s pledged support would include long-term financial assistance and grief counselling to the children who lost parents in the tragedy.

On Friday night, Dr Donald Rhodd, in whose Portland East constituency the tragedy occurred, said “It is very traumatic and really devastating and you can see the crowd here, the amount of families that have been affected. I don’t know how we will recover from this one. This one is big”.

Government parliamentarian Vaz, who represents Portland West, was also at the scene Friday night. He, too, expressed condolences to the victims’ families and friends and praised the efficiency of the emergency teams as well as the residents for their bravery.

The last major road accident to have resulted in multiple deaths in Portland occurred in 1985 when 11 Eastern Banana Estate workers perished after the truck taking them home plunged over a precipice in Hector’s River.