MANDEVILLE, Manchester — One man died on the Spur Tree Hill main road, while an elderly man was mowed down and seriously injured in Porus in two road crashes yesterday, hours after the Road Safety Unit released data showing that up to yesterday morning 444 people were killed in 397 crashes since the start of the year, an eight per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.

The first of yesterday’s incidents on the crash-prone Spur Tree Hill main road involved a Toyota Axio motor car and a tractor-trailer truck.

The driver of the motor car died while undergoing treatment at hospital.

Police identified the deceased as 20-year-old Pahjana Mair of Burnt Savannah District in St Elizabeth, but his friends and school year book named his as Tahjani Mair.

Police report that about 11:00 am, the driver of the car lost control of the vehicle while travelling downhill and collided with the tractor-trailer heading in the opposite direction.

Spur Tree resident Renae Brooks told the Jamaica Observer that the road was wet when the crash occurred.

She said the car was crushed upon impact and pinned between the tractor-trailer and the road embankment.

The crucial Spur Tree Hill main road links Mandeville and its environs to St Elizabeth and points west. Heavily laden, slow-moving trucks often hinder traffic on the steep, difficult hill, and there have been a number of accidents involving trucks over the years.

In the second incident, the injured man was hit by a minibus, which went off-road in Porus.

Police report that about 12:00 pm the driver of the Toyota Hiace minibus was overtaking a line of traffic near Trinity when he lost control of the vehicle.

The bus went off-road, hitting the elderly man whose relatives say is in his 60s.

Carol Morgan, a cousin of the injured man, said he was standing in front of a bar when he was hit by the bus and flung into a tomato garden.

“The [driver] a overtake…. Him couldn’t control the [vehicle and] lick the man weh in yah so. The man drop in a tomato bed. All him teeth dem come out,” Morgan said.

“When mi throw water pon him, him nah move, so mi block the road and seh nutten nah pass till dem take him up carry him go hospital. A mi blood family this, enuh. Anyhow him dead we nuh know how we a go feel inna wi self,” she added.

She accused the driver of videotaping her injured relative before fleeing the scene.

However, a police source told the Observer that the driver turned up at Porus Police Station after the crash.