Road Safety Report

PORTLAND, Jamaica–A hardware delivery truck driver is dead after his unit went over a precipice during heavy rains in the Rio Grande Valley in Portland on Tuesday, November 21, 2023.

Police sources said at about 4:00 p.m., the driver and two sidemen were en route to Dumfries to deliver hardware materials. There was a breakaway upon reaching a section of the road at Cooper’s Hill.

The two sidemen came off the truck, but the driver proceeded. The back wheel reportedly slipped at the breakaway, and the truck, loaded with hardware items, plunged more than 150 feet into a gully.

The police said the driver, who became trapped underneath the truck, was pronounced dead by a doctor.

The police have not released his name at this time.

Firefighters arrived at the scene but could not assist due to the gully’s depth and the torrential rainfall.

Four escaped serious injuries in a two-vehicle collision.

MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Four people narrowly escaped serious injury following a two-vehicle crash on the Winston Jones Highway in Mandeville on Tuesday, November 21, 2023.

According to preliminary reports, The accident occurred at about 1:00 p.m. at the Marshall’s Pen intersection with the highway. It involved a Honda CRV and a Suzuki Vitara. One of the vehicles went off-road into a ditch.

A police source said investigations suggest that the Honda motorcar exited Marshall’s Drive onto the highway when the collision occurred.

The crash-prone road has been the scene of numerous accidents over the years.

In October, two people escaped injured during a crash near the intersection.

The intersection was also the site of another accident in August, where two individuals escaped serious injuries.

In July, thieves looted 500 cases of water from a delivery truck after colliding with a Nissan Tiida, meters from the three crashes.

Residents of Marshall’s Pen are reiterating their calls for the National Works Agency to re-mark the intersection with an unbroken white line to reduce the likelihood of crashes there.

67-year-old farmer charged with sex crime granted $250,000 bail.

A 67-year-old man charged for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old girl was granted $250,000 bail with surety when he appeared before St Catherine Parish Court on Tuesday, November 21, 2023.

The accused, a farmer, is charged with having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years.

Attorney-at-law Christopher Townsend made the bail application.

He told parish court judge Annette Austin that his client was at an advanced age and was not a flight risk.

The court granted bail on the condition that the accused report to the Bog Walk police on Sundays and Mondays and that he stay away from the community where the alleged incident occurred.

Furthermore, the presiding judge instructed the accused not to interfere with the complainant.

The court adjourned the case until February 16, 2024.

According to the allegation, the accused allegedly had sexual intercourse with the complainant in early November 2023.

The child reported the matter to the police’s Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).

The authorities launched an investigation, which resulted in the child getting medically examined and the accused arrested and subsequently charged.