Altiman Whyte and his children - Nickeisha, 23; Lorna, 10, and Sylvia - were a picture of grief near the bereaved father's fruit stall in Flankers yesterday.

FLANKERS, St James - Nothing could have prepared family members and friends for the gruesome deaths of brothers, Anthony Whyte, seven, and Romeo Whyte, five, who were Tuesday evening swept out of their mother's arms by a hit-and-run driver as they attempted to cross the main road here.

The children's mother, 45-year-old Belva Phillips, also received injuries in the accident. She was treated at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

According to Constable Richam Davis, the Constabulary Communication Network's (CCN) liaison officer for St James, at approximately 6:15 pm on Tuesday, Phillips, who was accompanied by three of her 12 children and a grandchild, was attempting to cross the Flankers main road when the two little ones were hit by a Nissan motorcar which allegedly overtook a line of traffic.

Constable Davis reported the woman and the children had just got off a bus and were in the process of crossing the street, after a motorist stopped to allow them to cross, when they were hit.

The incident attracted a large crowd and triggered a long build-up of traffic as community members and passersby alike converged on the scene to get a peek at the *lo**-drenched bodies of the two brothers who attended the Flankers Primary and Junior High and Providence Basic School, respectively, sprawled along the roadway.

Several people wept openly at the scene. The boys' father, Altiman Whyte, a 70-year-old fruit vendor, collapsed on the scene after seeing the motionless, mutilated bodies of his young sons.

"Me drop down up there last night, me couldn't stay. Me daughter dem carry me home last night me couldn't stomach to see how two little boys how them mash up. Lord God! I don't know where the man (driver) him no stop and nothing," wailed the distressed father yesterday. "I don't know what going happen. I can't explain. Those two kids I love them, I miss them ever so much, I don't know what going happen to me. I don't know when this going come outa me."

The distraught father, who is also the Phillips' common-law husband, said the tragedy struck after members of his family were returning home after leaving the nearby Sandals Montego Bay Hotel where they usually receive free meals.
The tearful Whyte said they were transported from the hotel by one of the hotel's buses.

".As the bus man drop her off, a car give her the right-away fe come across. I hear that a car lick the two boys out of her hands, and she get a lick on her right foot," said the grief-stricken Whyte.

Whyte yesterday urged the National Works Agency to install traffic lights at the North Coast Highway's intersection with Flankers.

".Jesus Christ Almighty God, man it needs something fe check them quality speed. Oh God Almighty man, member say people live in the area you know, is not a place where wild cow live. Lord God Almighty anybody, even big people it could a happen to," said Whyte.