STRATHBOGIE, Westmoreland — Two families have been ripped apart by the death of two cousins in an early morning crash in Westmoreland on Monday. Another cousin is among three hospitalised.

Twenty-one-year-old Omario Brown died on his birthday as he and his cousin Gary “Javel” Brown Jr, also 21, left a friend’s party in Grange Hill. They lived a few feet away from each other in the community of Strathbogie in the parish.

“He doesn’t give any trouble. He’s always here. He lives next door, but 99 per cent of the time he is here. He only goes and sleeps and comes back. He would normally just go to work and, you know these young people, would go to their parties and things. He always goes out and comes back but I don’t know why they don’t come back this time,” Omario’s aunt Staycian Brown tearfully told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to the family’s residence.

“I never, never expected that this would happen to them. They don’t deserve this. The family doesn’t deserve this,” she added.

She said the young men, who grew up together, were very close, well-mannered, well-behaved, and hard-working. As she spoke of Omario, who worked at a hotel in the parish, his younger sister wept bitterly.

The grief was just as intense for Javel’s family. He worked at a supermarket and was awaiting a call to begin training for the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Javel’s father, Gary Brown Sr, was too overcome with grief to speak with the Observer. However, his mother, Zada Brown, and father, Earnel Brown, relayed how they received the unwelcome news. Javel’s mother had called to say someone told her the cousins had died in a crash near Three Miles River.

Zada is having a hard time accepting that her grandson is dead.

“I cooked and he even ate and left some. He went away and came back,” she said.

A part of her is still hoping he will be back home.

“I am looking for him every time. Every time I heard the phone ring I thought it was him calling for me to open the grille but it was the mother calling to tell me that she heard that they crashed,” added Zada.

Police report that five people were travelling in a Toyota motor car about 1:00 am when the vehicle drifted to the left and collided with a tree.

The two cousins died while another paternal cousin, a male, and a female have been hospitalised. The relative, while responsive, is unable to move.

The female is said to be in better health, the male is said to be in serious condition with broken hands and feet. He also has damage to his neck.

Gary Sr, who visited the hospital on Monday, is concerned that the sickout by junior doctors across the island was impacting care given to their relative at Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital.

“We did not see any doctor. When we went inside the nurses said the doctors are on strike. We did not see anybody that we could talk to. Some of the nurses, when you ask them a question, it is like they are giving you an attitude because we were saying that if he could even move to Montego Bay or somewhere else where you can get better assistance,” he said.