JAMAICA Fire Brigade (JFB) Acting Commissioner Kevin Haughton has defended his firefighters in the wake of criticism that they took a very long time to respond to a deadly motor vehicle crash in Westmoreland last week and that they didn’t quickly free the crash victim, who was pinned inside his vehicle.

The crash claimed the life of a 39-year-old fisherman on June 23 in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland. The force of the impact left the man trapped inside his motor car after it collided with another vehicle in which a husband and a wife were travelling. The couple was reportedly badly injured.

“I saw where persons were claiming that they made several attempts to call the Savanna-la-Mar station in relation to the motor vehicle accident that took place on the 23rd of June. I want to set the record straight that the Savanna-la-Mar Fire Station got a call at 10:06 pm. On receipt of this call, we responded by 10:07 pm and arrived at the scene on the Belmont main road at 10:28 pm,” Haughton told the
Jamaica Observer.

“They accused the JFB of taking too long and that numerous attempts were made to contact us. We have the name and the number of the person who made contact with the Jamaica Fire Brigade. Contrary to what persons were saying, we received the call and we sent out a unit immediately. It took the unit about 21 minutes to get there. The distance was about 21 kilometres approximately from the Savanna-la-Mar Fire Station,” Haughton added.

“In relation to another issue where a gentleman died in the car and we never did anything, I must use this opportunity to extend, on behalf of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, our sincere condolence to the bereaved family. I just want to make the point that when we go to a motor vehicle crash scene, and once we recognise that there is a fatality, we don’t generally do recovery unless there is a police unit or a funeral home on site,” Haughton explained.

“We want to ensure that as we do the recovery, we can place the body in that vehicle to be taken to the hospital or to the morgue for them to be pronounced. We don’t like whenever we turn up at these scenes and have to place a body at the side of the road and cover it. I don’t believe that is dignified to the deceased and, therefore, we normally wait until a hearse or the police is on scene,” Haughton shared.

Early last week Television Jamaica (TVJ) reported that the man who died in the crash was among people who had gone in search of an 11-year-old boy who had been washed away by flood waters on Monday.

The news reports featured two women who said they were at the scene. One of them said the man was pinned down in his car for almost one hour and that when they approached the wrecked vehicle they saw smoke and airbags. The man was reportedly groaning inside the vehicle.

The woman said she called for help for almost an hour. Her call log reportedly showed her first call to the police at 9:54 pm and then fire brigade at 9:56 pm. Her last call to the fire brigade was at 10:23 pm.

She said that she believed the man could have been saved.

Since the start of the year, just under 190 people have been killed in traffic crashes.