Sunday, March 31, 2024, is now indelibly imprinted in Sandra Gordon’s mind.

Gordon, who lives in East Kingston, escaped with minor injuries after the minibus in which she was a passenger, crashed in Fern Gully. The family outing, she says, was the worst trip of her life.

Not so lucky, though, was her 49-year-old sister-in-law Suzette Thomas, who was killed in the crash.

Most of the 23 passengers, among them 16 children, were seriously injured after the minibus slammed into a wall as they headed for Thatch Hill River in St Ann.

According to Gordon, the tragedy has made her sure that the river trip was the last one she will ever sign up for.

“I was at the front. When I saw the bus landing into the wall, I said ‘Yes Lord, this is it for me.’ When the bus crash now and I saw that I could move and come out, the only problem I had was a terrible chest and back pain and my arm was cut as well as one of my toes,” Gordon told the
Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“I did an X-ray and they said my chest is okay,” she added.

“We were driving smoothly going on the trip. We all left from Kingston to go to Thatch Hill in St Ann. Just as we crossed over Colgate the bus started to move fast before we entered Fern Gully. We started to scream and the driver, while trying to stop the bus, said, ‘Mummy, Mummy, mi can’t find no brake.’ He ended up swerving the bus on his side and the bus lick up in the wall,” Gordon said.

“The driver was pinned down in the bus. A little girl was beside me. I came out of the bus and we tried to pull the side door to take out my brother and the children but we couldn’t take them out. A passer-by who was going to the beach stopped, and another bus stopped and then we managed to pull the back of the bus and started to take out the children.

“I was the first one, along with three children who were assisted to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital. The child who was in the front, her foot broke. Another little girl who was in the middle of the bus was unconscious. As we reached the hospital the doctors started to look after her, and so on,” she told the
Observer.

“Five adults and about 10 children were in the bus. The lady who died is my sister-in-law. She is the babymother of my brother. He is over his house crying because he has been with her for 31 years,” Gordon shared.

“One boy received a broken jaw and leg. His condition is very serious too. I wouldn’t blame the driver because everything was going smoothly up until he said he couldn’t find the brakes. Everybody bruck up and still in hospital. Kayla is the most serious one. She is eight years old, going to nine next month. She is now at Bustamante Hospital for Children. Another girl named Renee, she is serious, and another one named Kaydeen they said they would take her to the University Hospital,” she shared before commending the driver.

“The driver did his best. If he didn’t do what he did all of us would probably have been dead. He tried. Even when he was pinned down he turned to me and asked if everybody alright. I told him that they were injured. After they started taking out the children from the back they had to turn over the bus to take him out. Right now he has some broken bones and I hope he doesn’t turn into a vegetable,” Gordon said.

She recalled she and her sister-in-law were joking and laughing before the crash.

“She was saying that when she heard about the trip she was the first person to say she was going. I even gave her some water on the bus,” Gordon said.

Thomas’s daughter, Annika Gordon, who was also heading to Thatch Hill but travelling on another bus, was in disbelief. She shared that her mother was booked to travel on the bus with her but circumstances forced her to travel on the ill-fated minibus instead.

“The Coaster bus I travelled on, when she came in, it was full and she was upset because she wanted two seats saved for her on it. She said she wasn’t going to bother go but she ended up on the minibus. I thought she went back into her house the way she was upset. She has one son and two girls, including myself. My sister is in St Ann’s Bay with her son because he was on the minibus as well. He sustained a broken leg, arm, mouth, jawbone, and everything,” Annika shared.

Her father, Eric Gordon, who was also travelling on the ill-fated minibus, was distraught.

“I don’t feel like I can go too far. Anytime I go in, a she me see. Mi feel a way bad. I don’t think I can go fireside again and I can’t eat anything. Mi love her gone to bed. A plan mi plan fi married her and this come happen. A inna her nightie mi sleep last night and every minute mi wake up,” he said.

“The driver couldn’t find any brakes. The side he banked it on, Susan was on that side. She was bleeding through her nose, her ears, and her mouth. The right side of her face was damaged. Her birthday was the 24th of January. I am trying to hold up for my two grandchildren. Mi a feel likkle pain, but mi alright still,” he added.

Other relatives, who were on another bus thanked the doctors and other medical staff at St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital for their tireless efforts to keep their loved ones alive.

They also expressed gratitude to the police and firefighters for their efforts.

“The doctors worked hard and fast at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital. It’s like they called all of the doctors available. They worked whole night Sunday night a look about the children. All now dem deh deh a work,” a female relative shared.

A male relative thanked the police who he said “worked right through with every escort for everyone to go to hospital.

“When the first set reached the hospital and told them that there were more children out there, the ambulance dem rush out and go fi dem. Mi always hear people a cuss the hospital dem but these doctors really worked,” he said.