SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – For 20 years Brian Bragnalo and his family from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada have been coming to “beautiful” Jamaica.

He watched with approval the rapid development of infrastructure and other areas of national life. His biggest concern down those years has been the reckless, thoughtless driving habits of the young, in particular even in sedate Treasure Beach, which has become like a second home for himself and his family.

Tragically, last Friday, he lost his daughter, Carly Marie Bragnalo, 27, in an early morning accident which some suggest flowed directly from excess speed on the Newell main road in South St Elizabeth.

Yesterday, following a Roman Catholic Mass in Treasure Beach to commemorate his daughter’s life, a grieving Bragnalo still found time to hope that his daughter’s death will somehow help to accelerate action to curb recklessness on the roads.

“I think the authorities need to impose some sort of probationary system for new, young drivers; there should be stricter rules governing the issuing of drivers’ licences. Also there should be strict rules governing speed in communities, I think in some of these communities you should have sleeping policemen (speed bumps) which may be a little inconvenient but serve a very useful purpose,” he said.

“When I first started coming to Jamaica, there were not so many cars. To make a telephone call we had to travel from Treasure Beach to Black River. Now there is so much development, but the poor driving habits haven’t changed.,” the 51-year-old Bragnalo said.

Carly Marie, who was due to be married in August to professional hockey player Taylor Pyatt of the Vancouver Canucks, died when the car in which she was a passenger ran out of control and crashed into a utility pole.

Another Canadian woman, Marcy Kawahara, a nurse at the Vancouver General Hospital – also originally from Thunder Bay – and who, according to Bragnalo “was born on the same day (March 1, 1982), in the same room” as his daughter was taken by air ambulance to Vancouver via Miami on Saturday with neck and head injuries.

Three Jamaicans, the car’s driver, Craig Sutherland as well as Junior Swaby and Sophia Sutherland were injured, but have since been released from hospital.

The accident victims were returning to Treasure Beach from a night out when the accident happened at about 4:30 am in the morning.

Early reports that Carly Marie’s mother Debra was also injured turned out to be false. She was not in the car. The Canadians were scheduled to return home that same day.

Carly Marie’s death has brought the number on St Elizabeth roads since the start of the year to 15 from 10 fatal accidents, based on an unofficial tally.

Yesterday, Bragnalo said he and his family were thankful for the church service; and the good feeling that had flowed from the local community. “There wasn’t an empty seat,” he said, “It was a very good Mass, very sad but very good”.

EDITORS NOTE: We regret the errors in the initial story published on April 4.