Mark Beckford and Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writers

The mangled remains of the ill-fated Toyota Corolla station wagon in which six persons perished on Highway 2000 near the Vineyard Toll Plaza, yesterday evening. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer.

Calamity struck on the Clarendon leg of Highway 2000, late last evening, when six persons were killed in a motor vehicle crash. The accident, which happened about 250-300 metres west of the Vineyard Toll Plaza, was a scene of twisted metal, blood and tears.

A white Toyota station wagon and a green Toyota station wagon were involved in the accident. When The Gleaner news team arrived on the scene, the site was one of desperation and carnage as emergency workers toiled to free persons from the mangled wreckage.

Car split in two

At least four bodies were strewn among farm produce and luggage on the roadway. The warped remains of the white Toyota station wagon were littered with body parts and remnants of a utility pole as the car was split in two, with the front of the vehicle some 50 feet away from the back.

The car which is designed to carry five passengers was overloaded, and the roadway was slippery as it had rained in the afternoon.

According to eyewitnesses the white car was hit in the back by the other vehicle, causing the driver to lose control before slamming into the light post.

Miraculously, the driver of the car, Jimmie Johnson, walked away from the accident with only a few scratches and was admitted in hospital. Unfortunately, the other six passengers of the car did not make it. Dead are Paulette Johnson, 49-years-old and her 18-year-old son, Kemar Hyman; Junior Johnson, Dave Taylor, Kaysia Barrett, 18, and a woman known only as 'Tash'. The six had reportedly attended the funeral of one of Ms. Johnson's sons in Clarendon on Sunday.

Several onlookers at the site of the crash expressed awe and disbelief as they surveyed the scene which some described as a scene out of a horror film.

Head of the Police Traffic Division, Senior Superintendent Ealan Powell, while expressing condolences described the lives lost as "more than an accident", as he believed the distance from the toll booth to the crash required slow moderate to slow speed and not the speed which he believed precipitated the accident.

This accident comes shortly after statistics from the National Road Safety Council of Jamaica were released which showed that there were fewer road fatalities up to September 18 this year - 208 fatal accidents with 242 deaths, compared to last year's 220 fatal accidents with 255 deaths for the corresponding period.

Kenute Hare, accident analyst and statistician at the unit had also described it as the best third quarter in terms of accident fatalities since 2001.