SALT MARSH, Trelawny — Blood-curdling screams shattered the early-morning calm here on Sunday when five passengers — mostly public transport operators from St Catherine — heading to Hanover for a colleague’s all-white birthday party, died after the Toyota Hiace in which they were travelling flipped several times before crashing into a pole.

The casualties include four males and a female. The police have identified them as 22-year-old Akeem Roberts; 42-year-old Dwayne Campbell; Simone Minott; Quanardo Owens; and Horace Tulloch. The police also revealed that the crash victims hailed from Portmore and Spanish Town addresses in St Catherine.

Seven passengers were admitted for treatment at Falmouth Public General Hospital; two of which were released by mid-morning Sunday, but the conditions of the others were not known up to press time.

According to the police, about 2:30 am Sunday, the vehicle veered across the road and flipped for about 50 metres, downing palm trees until it crashed into a concrete utility pole — the impact sending some of the occupants flying from the vehicle.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the scene on Sunday morning, dislodged parts from the vehicle — a bumper, a door, a tyre, mirrors, splintered glass — as well as fuel, blood, uprooted palm trees, sneakers, peak caps, cellphone cases, and other debris strewn on the ground told the tale of the horrific crash.

Blank-faced residents from the area near a pond in the community just outside of Falmouth, who milled around, vented frustration over the increased number of crashes in the vicinity.

“Almost every month we have accidents on this road. We just tired of it…There is a pond over there and you hear say vehicle run over there. We tired of it.

“We are scared. Sometimes I don’t want to cross the road. Me haffi go work and I am scared because of the speed they [drivers] coming with. Sometimes they see you crossing and they don’t slow down,” bemoaned Sharlene Hudson, a nurse.

The scene that followed at Falmouth Public General Hospital was even more sorrowful.

After being treated and released from hospital, a female crash survivor — whose white dress was bloodstained — broke down in tears upon learning that lives had been lost in the tragedy.

Another survivor, a man whose knees were heavily bandaged, was explaining that the crash occurred when the driver of the ill-fated vehicle lost control while attempting to avoid crashing into an oncoming car that reportedly overtook another motor vehicle.

However, he was quickly dragged away by a grief-stricken man, also dressed in white, who was among a group that had earlier arrived at the hospital from the party.

Some members of that group strongly opposed the Observer capturing photographs of them while they were at the health-care facility.

They were egged on by a hospital worker, clad in a blue polo shirt, who was overheard telling the inconsolable group that on a previous occasion the same Observer reporter pointed a camera in the face of a woman who was at the facility after her son had been taken there with fatal stab wounds.

On the heels of the deadly crash, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) issued a warning to motorists.

“Motorists should not expect any chances or any discretion from the police using the highways. The directive to them is to be very firm and to be zero-tolerant of speeding. Once you are stopped for speeding, overtaking improperly, or failing to keep to the left, you should expect to be prosecuted,” head of the JCF’s Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) Assistant Commissioner of Police Dr Gary McKenzie told the Observer in a telephone interview on Sunday.

During an impromptu press conference at Falmouth Police Station hours after the crash, commander of the Trelawny Police Division, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ainsley McCarthy, revealed that the five deaths have pushed the tally of road fatalities in the parish since the start of the year to 15 — six more than the nine recorded over the same period last year.

He bemoaned that, despite their best efforts, law enforcers continue to grapple with fatal crashes on the section of the north coast highway that passes through the parish.

“Once again, we appeal to road users to drive within the speed limit. Be mindful of other road users, the life you save may be that of your very own. Speeding kills, ladies and gentlemen.

“While you’re out there on our roadways, please be careful,” DSP McCarthy urged. “Remember the person next to you on the road is your neighbour. Be a good neighbour to your fellow drivers on the road.”

Meanwhile, ACP McKenzie also appealed to motorists to observe the road traffic laws, revealing that the police were monitoring motorists on the north coast highway at the time of the crash.

“The police were on that stretch of road [at the time of the crash]. The police mounted several checks; the records show that the police had a national coordinated roadblock in the vicinity. And…the Highway Patrol was just down the road on the Elegant Corridor,” he said. The senior lawman added: “The cause of the crash is that the driver was driving in a dangerous manner, travelling on the highway, failed to negotiate a corner at high speed, and as a result the vehicle went to the right, off the roadway and collided with the palm trees, overturned and crashed with the light pole, causing the death and injury of the people.”

In the meantime, vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council, Dr Lucien Jones, said the crash brings into sharp focus the need for the entire country “to be mobilised to deal with this serious national problem”.

He is advocating for public education, training, and sanctions to force motorists to slow down on the nation’s roads.

Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services President Egerton Newman expressed condolence to relatives and friends of the deceased.

“The sector is in darkness this [Sunday] morning. We have lost at least four members of our family in a bus crash…on the Salt Marsh main road. It is unfortunate. I was just looking at statistics last night that shows that since the start of the year, one PPV person [public passenger vehicle operator] lost his life and one PPV passenger, before this crash now,” he bewailed.

The five deaths on Sunday bring to 194 the number of road fatalities recorded across the island since the start of the year, four per cent less than the 203 at the same time last year.

A man is seen holding a part of the bus that was dislodged during the early-morning motor vehicle crash on Sunday. Horace Hines

Downed palm trees at a section of the Salt Marsh main road in Trelawny, the site of the tragic bus crash that resulted in the deaths of five people.

This licence plate was seen among the debris strewn about following the single-bus crash t a section of the Salt Marsh main road in Trelawny, on Sunday.

A shoe and cap, believed to belong to occupants of the Toyota Hiace bus that crashed while travelling along a section of the Salt Marsh main road in Trelawny, lay at the site of the tragic crash on Sunday. (Photos: Horace Hines)