Five people died and multiple others were injured in a devastating crash on Highway 2000 involving a bus in the vicinity of Old Harbour, St Catherine. Traffic police, firefighters, and medical teams rushed to the scene along the East–West corridor shortly after 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Emergency responders were met with chaos as they worked to reach the injured scattered around the crash site. Moments after the crash, footage of the scene was released, showing several people lying along the grassy shoulder of the highway.
The Vice-Chairman of the National Road Safety Council, Dr Lucien Jones, confirmed that there were 5 fatalities, 3 men and 2 females, according to Nationwide News. He also indicated that multiple people, including a child, were injured.
According to reports, several passengers were thrown from the bus. In the videos, several individuals are motionless on the ground. Security forces and bystanders are seen moving cautiously through the area as emergency personnel attempt to stabilise those who were injured.
Moon 10 understands that the bus, said to be a Toyota Hiace public passenger bus, was travelling in the eastbound lane. According to early reports, the bus overturned into a ditch just a few hundred metres before the Vineyard Toll Booth on the PJ Patterson Highway. The force of the crash left the vehicle completely wrecked, its structure twisted in footage shared from the scene.
A witness, according to The STAR, reported hearing passengers beg for assistance before they were transported to the hospital for urgent care. Up to late Wednesday evening, police and fire crews were still on location, managing the scene.
Dr Jones said that, based on the preliminary assessments, the tyre of the bus seemingly exploded, causing the vehicle to lose control and crash.
The crash has added to what has already been a troubling year on the nation’s roads. According to the latest figures included in the reports, there have been 337 road fatalities from 297 crashes since the start of the year.
