UPDATE: Five dead, 15 injured in toll road crash
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Five people have died, and another 15 received medical treatment following a crash on the PJ Patterson Highway on Wednesday afternoon.
Chief executive officer (CEO) of the Spanish Town Hospital Jacqueline Ellis confirmed the deaths a short while ago with our news team.
Observer Online understands that the crash which occurred around 3:00 pm involved a Toyota Hiace bus operating as a public passenger vehicle in the eastbound lane, which overturned into a ditch a few hundred metres before the Vineyard Toll Booth.
Vice chair of the National Road Safety Council Dr Lucien Jones says preliminary reports are that the tyre of the bus blew out, causing it to hit against a guard rail and overturn.
“The report says that a tyre blew out. The question is whether or not the vehicle was travelling at high speeds is to be the subject of investigation, and the minivan hit against a guardrail and flipped several times, and that’s why we had so many injuries,” he said.
Jones is now urging motorists to exercise caution while using the nation’s roadways and to drive within the speed limit.
“This is a terrible crash that is going to cause the nation to mourn even more now in the midst of Melissa, and it means that a total of 342 people have died for this year, coming at a time when for a number of days we had no fatalities reported by the police. So this is a sudden jolt and a reminder to all of us that we need to drive on the roads with extreme care and to slow down and to make sure that the vehicles in which we are driving and the drivers who are driving these vehicles ensure that we have safe vehicles, to ensure that people are buckled up and to ensure that there is no speeding on our roads because all of these things can cause crashes and, in this instant case, fatal crashes,” Jones argued.
He said the police are continuing their investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
“The police are going to continue the investigation to find out precisely what caused it, but this is a terrible tragedy on the roads and a reminder to us that road safety has to be an absolute priority in the minds of the entire nation and the government in particular,” Jones said.
“We have to do everything possible to ensure that we have safe drivers by making sure that every aspect of the Road Traffic Act is rolled out, especially the merit point system, so that people have a sense that if they break the law, then they will be subject to fines and possibly, if you accumulate many points, possibly affect your ability to drive on the roads because your licence can be suspended,” he continued.
