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Crash calamity - Hanover four killed in accident
(another senseless crash)
Crash calamity - Hanover four killed in accident - Eyewitnesses blame speeding - Teen victim sneaked out to party 12-y-o girl left motherless
published: Monday | February 4, 2008
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
Onlookers examine the wreckage of the Toyota Corolla that crashed into a kerb in Green Island, Hanover, killing four people onboard on Sunday morning. - Photo by Janet Silvera
WESTERN BUREAU:
Dissected bodies trapped in mangled metal formed the aftermath of a horrific car crash that left four Hanover residents dead and several communities in mourning yesterday morning.
That was the scene that gripped onlookers who rushed from their homes to investigate the loud crash they heard around 3:20 a.m. along the Green Island main road in the parish.
Firefighters had to assist in prying the four, Stari Leslie, 24, of Lances Bay; Navada Grant, 26; his fiancée Donna Swearing, 35; and Jodi-Gaye Wellington, 19, all of Bulls Bay, from the Toyota Corolla in which they were travelling.
Eyewitnesses say the car driven by Grant was seen speeding through Kendal, Hanover, just minutes before it careened off the main road, slamming into a kerb and landing in a ditch, splitting right down the middle.
When The Gleaner arrived on the scene, the car's headlights were seen at least a chain away from its chassis. The engine had been dislodged and the seats and other parts of the vehicle were scattered about.
"We were in my bed together (Saturday night) and she later left for her room. At about 10:00 p.m. I got up to lock up the house and found that Jodi-Gaye was missing from her bed," Paula Wellington, mother of the youngest occupant of the vehicle, told The Gleaner.
She said that, when she asked where her daughter was, she was told, "She screechy and gone a party." The elder Wellington said she kept calling her daughter's cellular phone and that it was not until 4 o'clock Sunday morning that she received a call notifying her that she had died in an accident.
With tears in her eyes, Wellington described Jodi-Gaye as extremely cheerful.
"Never see har and she nuh have a joke," the distraught mother said.
The mood in the different communities where the deceased lived was solemn, each visit evoking cries from the families. At 24 years old, Leslie's mother, Ruby Jeffrey, spoke of the bright future her son had.
Dreams dashed
A former English teacher at Rusea's High School, she said Leslie, an ace student, was recently accepted for officer training in the Jamaica Defence Force and should have started the next phase of his life this month.
"He had a lot ahead of him because he wanted his own school, because he didn't believe the current school system was doing the country's children justice and wanted to aid in its transformation," said Jeffrey.
Swearing, who was a secretary at Pyramid Drafting Services in Lucea, has left behind a 12-year-old daughter, Doniquea Chambers. The driver, Grant, was unemployed at the time of his death.
janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
( L - R ) Donna Swearing, Stari Leslie
( L - R ) Navada Grant, Jodi-Gaye Wellington
Crash calamity - Hanover four killed in accident - Eyewitnesses blame speeding - Teen victim sneaked out to party 12-y-o girl left motherless
published: Monday | February 4, 2008
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
Onlookers examine the wreckage of the Toyota Corolla that crashed into a kerb in Green Island, Hanover, killing four people onboard on Sunday morning. - Photo by Janet Silvera
WESTERN BUREAU:
Dissected bodies trapped in mangled metal formed the aftermath of a horrific car crash that left four Hanover residents dead and several communities in mourning yesterday morning.
That was the scene that gripped onlookers who rushed from their homes to investigate the loud crash they heard around 3:20 a.m. along the Green Island main road in the parish.
Firefighters had to assist in prying the four, Stari Leslie, 24, of Lances Bay; Navada Grant, 26; his fiancée Donna Swearing, 35; and Jodi-Gaye Wellington, 19, all of Bulls Bay, from the Toyota Corolla in which they were travelling.
Eyewitnesses say the car driven by Grant was seen speeding through Kendal, Hanover, just minutes before it careened off the main road, slamming into a kerb and landing in a ditch, splitting right down the middle.
When The Gleaner arrived on the scene, the car's headlights were seen at least a chain away from its chassis. The engine had been dislodged and the seats and other parts of the vehicle were scattered about.
"We were in my bed together (Saturday night) and she later left for her room. At about 10:00 p.m. I got up to lock up the house and found that Jodi-Gaye was missing from her bed," Paula Wellington, mother of the youngest occupant of the vehicle, told The Gleaner.
She said that, when she asked where her daughter was, she was told, "She screechy and gone a party." The elder Wellington said she kept calling her daughter's cellular phone and that it was not until 4 o'clock Sunday morning that she received a call notifying her that she had died in an accident.
With tears in her eyes, Wellington described Jodi-Gaye as extremely cheerful.
"Never see har and she nuh have a joke," the distraught mother said.
The mood in the different communities where the deceased lived was solemn, each visit evoking cries from the families. At 24 years old, Leslie's mother, Ruby Jeffrey, spoke of the bright future her son had.
Dreams dashed
A former English teacher at Rusea's High School, she said Leslie, an ace student, was recently accepted for officer training in the Jamaica Defence Force and should have started the next phase of his life this month.
"He had a lot ahead of him because he wanted his own school, because he didn't believe the current school system was doing the country's children justice and wanted to aid in its transformation," said Jeffrey.
Swearing, who was a secretary at Pyramid Drafting Services in Lucea, has left behind a 12-year-old daughter, Doniquea Chambers. The driver, Grant, was unemployed at the time of his death.
janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
( L - R ) Donna Swearing, Stari Leslie
( L - R ) Navada Grant, Jodi-Gaye Wellington