DAMIAN Clarke, husband of Cornelia Clarke, one of the passengers involved in a deadly crash along a section of Highway 2000 on April 12, believes if his family wasn’t being given the runaround to clear a container at the wharf in Kingston since January, she would be alive today.

“I became concerned and I tried to find out what’s keeping her so long. When I called, a taximan answered. He went by the scene of the accident, took up the tablet that belongs to my wife. When I called, he gave me the news that there was a great casualty, a great accident, and there were several who died. I am coming from the wharf. My wife was coming from Mandeville with sums of money. The back and forth caused my wife to be in the accident. She would have been alive,” he told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

Clarke hailed from the Jacques Road community in Kingston. A nine-night was held for her on Wednesday evening.

“I am beseeching those in authority to look into the situation for poor people. People will suffer further. Everytime they come up with an amount and we pay it, they give us another amount to pay and an even more exaggerated price. My brother-in-law and I were told that we only owed $41, 600. Ten minutes later they raised the price to over $412, 000. They keep coming up with a new price, even after they signed it off,” Clarke continued.

According to the police, at least 11 persons were taken to hospital following the crash which took place after 11:00 am. The driver of the Toyota Hiace bus being operated as a public-passenger vehicle was reportedly speeding, when he lost control. The vehicle reportedly slammed into a truck, before flipping multiple times, then landing right side up on a median.

Since the start of the year, 129 persons have lost their lives on the island’s road network.