Cop among five dead in separate crashes

Five people, including a police constable, died in four separate crashes across Jamaica within a 12-hour period, highlighting the continuing toll on the country’s roads.

Police said the fatal incidents occurred between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning in Clarendon, Westmoreland and St James. In the first crash, groundsman Opheal Hyman, 41, of Santa Hill district in Spalding, Clarendon, died after a truck collision on the Nine Miles main road near Spalding at about 3 p.m. Friday. The Manchester police division, which has jurisdiction over Spalding, is investigating.

About 8:45 p.m. Friday, two motorcyclists died after their motorcycles collided with a Nissan Tiida on the Swansea to Four Paths main road in Clarendon. Police identified the victims as Jevoy Wheatle, also known as “Pepe”, 23, a labourer from Gravel Hill in Milk River, and Ackeem Thomas, 24, a labourer from Race Course in Toll Gate.

A pedestrian whose identity remained unknown died after a Mark X motorcar struck him on the Rose Hall main road in St James at about 11:50 p.m. Police also reported that Constable Chadrick Cooke died in the early hours of Saturday from injuries sustained in a two-vehicle crash on Farm Pen Road in Westmoreland. Cooke served at the Frome Police Station.

The latest police figures show 232 road fatalities from 199 crashes through 6 a.m. Saturday. During the corresponding period last year, 263 people died in 229 crashes.