Three die in Labour Day crash


SCARLETT HALL, Trelawny - Three people were killed yesterday and another three seriously injured when a motor car and a mini-van collided on the main road in this rural Jamaican community.

The police identified the deceased as Ruth Mignott, also known as called 'Betty", a resident of a Davis Pen, Trelawny; David Martin of Goodwill, St James and Irvin Brown of Chester Castle, Hanover. All were passengers in the motor car.

The identities of the injured, two of whom were said to be passengers in the motor car, were being withheld by the police.

According to the police spokesman Constable Patrick Chin, about 6:30 yesterday morning a white Toyota Corolla motor car, driven by Brown, was traveling along the Scarlett Hall main road - about three miles on the outskirts of the Trelawny capital, Falmouth - towards Montego Bay when a green Toyota Townace minibus travelling in the opposite direction drifted to the right side of the road and collided head-on with the car.

All five passengers of the car and the driver of the minibus received multiple injuries and were taken to the Falmouth Hospital where the three were pronounced dead.

Scores of curious onlookers massed along the scene of the accident for a view of the mangled remains of both motor vehicles in a large pool of oil mixed with *lo**, sprinkled with pieces of metal, clothing, flesh and bones.

"There are no brake marks so you can see that one or both of the vehicles were speeding and crashed with a full impact," one onlooker said..

The tragic news pulled a large number of mourners, particularly from the Johnson Hill community in Trelawny from where the well-loved Mignott resided.

The distraught family members and friends of Mignott, who was said to be on her way to work at a hotel in Rose Hall, rushed to the Falmouth Hospital where she had been undergoing treatment before succumbing to her injuries.

Mignott's son fainted when his mother's corpse was placed on a stretcher and taken to the waiting vehicle from a funeral parlour. There were also loud wails from other family members and friends. The deceased's mother, Gloria Hyman had to be treated at the hospital for stress.

The death of Martin, a construction worker, put a damper on Labour Day activities in the community of Goodwill.
Martin had been on his way to work in Greenwood.

"We are doing community work and when me hear me drop everything. Me can't work again. Me see David before him just go away this morning. He was going to work," said Lennox Reid, a resident of Goodwill.