Wake tragedy
Published:Monday | January 10, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Death stalks mourners as fleeing motorist kills four
Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer
Four persons attending a wake in Four Paths, Clarendon, were mowed early yesterday morning after a motor car left the roadway and ploughed into a crowd with deadly consequences.
Last night, the Clarendon police were still piecing together details of the horrific crash, but said the car careened off the Bustamante Highway and into a yard filled with mourners, minutes after the driver ignored a stop signal by a police highway patrol unit.
The victims were identified as Walton McDonald, 54, of Hayes; Jeffrey Wynter, 51, of Four Paths; André Thompson and Jeffrey Brown, both 17 years old of York Town, all in Clarendon.
The male driver was taken to the May Pen Hospital in critical condition and later transferred to the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston under police guard.
Police investigators say he will face criminal charges if he survives.
Three other persons at the wake were also admitted to hospital in serious condition.
Cops engage driver
Eyewitnesses reported that the accident occurred after the police engaged the driver who was on his way from a dance in Manchester in a high-speed chase.
Head of the Clarendon police, Senior Superintendent Dathan Henry, denied the claim.
Henry said the police have a strict policy against chasing fleeing vehicles because of the danger it poses to motorists, pedestrians and the police.
He said police personnel are trained to "follow them (fleeing vehicles)" and call for assistance.
In fact, Henry told The Gleaner that a police service vehicle was waiting at Glenmore Bridge to intercept the fleeing Totoya motor car.
Yesterday's accident, which pushed the number of road fatalities to seven since the start of the year, comes a week after a Toyota Avalon motor car ploughed into a crowded bus stop on Old Hope Road, in St Andrew, killing two people, one of whom was blind.
Director of the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport, Kenute Hare, told The Gleaner that his office is concerned that six of the seven road fatalities so far this year were pedestrians "mowed down by drivers in needless collisions".
"They never had to occur. Persons need to understand that the decisions that we make have consequences attached," Hare declared.
The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), the police information arm, reported that just before 4 a.m., the driver of a Toyota Caldina motor car was heading towards Kingston with four passengers.
The CCN report made no mention of a spot check, saying the driver lost control of the vehicle in the vicinity of Coconut Grove and ran off the road and on to premises where a wake was in progress.
CCN said the injured persons were taken to the May Pen Hospital, where four were pronounced dead and the others admitted in serious condition.