TWO men were killed and five others hospitalised in serious condition, following a two-vehicle collision on Old Hope Road, St Andrew, shortly after noon yesterday.
The dead men have been identified as Vincent Reid and ‘Sonny’ Warren.
According to onlookers, they were killed after the pick-up truck in which they were travelling collided with a Toyota Rav 4 that was exiting Jamaica College.
Reid was flung from the bed of the vehicle, which spun several times in the air before landing on top of him, while Warren — who was a passenger in the cab of the vehicle — died after he was chopped in the face by the its rearview mirror, onlookers said.
The injured were rushed to the University Hospital of the West Indies by passing motorists. None of the two occupants of the SUV was injured, however.
“I just have to thank God that Iam not dead, because any how the vehicle had hit my car good. Maybe we would be the one spinning go up the road,” Dennis Williams, the driver of the Rav 4, said.
Williams’ sentiments were echoed by his male passenger, who looked on in shock at
the men’s mangled bodies in the roadway.
“We just really lucky, that’s all I know,” offered the man, as scores of students and passers-by swarmed the area to view the gory scene.
The dead men’s boss Solomon Taylor, broke down openly minutes after arriving on the scene of the accident.
“The man dem never suppose to work together ’cause we start out late and we decided to just call it a day,” he cried.
“Is the ‘Ras’ (Reid) a push it and said that him waan go finish the work, and me tell dem go on. As the man dem drive out me get a call and is this me come see,” lamented the grieving man, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Is more than 10 years we have been working together; he is like my brother. I can’t believe that this happen,” he sobbed.
Following the accident, the police cordoned off that section of the roadway, forcing motorists to take a detour.
Yesterday, as police officers processed that scene, others were trying to assist a man from his car, which went over a precipice about four miles away in the upscale Mountain Springs community, also in the parish.
It was not clear how the accident occurred, but according Michael Cousins, one of the men who assisted in the rescue, the man sustained several cuts to his forehead and complained about a pain in his back.
“I couldn’t say how he got there, but I just heard a loud explosion and then the horn started honking continuously,” Cousins said.
“I later realised what happened; and after the police come we climbed down the hill for him. He was conscious when we got there but he wasn’t talking. He just pointed to his back,” Cousins told the Observer.
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