Joe Issa Expresses Condolences, Urges Caution on St. Ann’s Death Corridor

A crane removing the wreckage of the Toyota Hiace bus involved in the fatal crash along the Llandovery main road in St Ann this morning.

As people continue to lose their lives on the Ocho Rios to Browns Town main road in St. Ann, businessman and civic leader Joe Issa, has expressed condolences to the families of victims in the latest crash this morning while urging drivers to exercise caution when using that corridor.

“As inviting as that roadway is for speeding, one has to be careful because it’s a busy corridor and many drivers use it recklessly. I’m appealing to all of them who drive public and private passenger vehicles, motorcyclist, cyclists, and pedestrians to exercise caution when using the roadway.

“I’m urging drivers to stop the speeding as the road is heavily used and they can expect to have to slow down or stop at any time and the faster they drive the less reaction time they will have when called to do so, with the result being loss of life,” says Issa, a past president of the chamber of commerce in St. Ann where his Cool Group is located.

Issa was reacting to the fatal early-morning crash along the Llandovery main road in the parish in which five people are said to have died and several others injured including teachers and students. This roadway where the crash involving a Toyota Hiace bus and a Toyota Rav 4 occurred is between St. Ann’s Bay and Brown’s Town.

While expressing his condolences to the bereaved families Issa recalls in the interview, the wisdom of an elderly UK top traffic cop, who told participants at a seminar, “It doesn’t make sense killing yourself trying to get here only to find out that the seminar has not even started or has been rescheduled or cancelled…It’s better to arrive late and live to apologize rather than not arriving at all.”

Since the start of this year, Jamaica has recorded 82 road crash fatalities compared with 77 for the same period in 2015 and 64 the year before. Motorcyclists accounted for 32 compared with 20 last year for the same period. Pedestrians were next in line, accounting for 13 of the total fatalities, which was a reduction on the 19 recorded for the same period in 2015.

An article quoted Superintendent Cameron as saying that speeding was an “apparent” factor in this morning’s crash, adding that the bus which should have been carrying 12 passengers had approximately 15 people, including seven children.

“It appeared that it lost its drive shaft and some other mechanical part fell off resulting in the driver losing control colliding with a vehicle coming in the other direction… then the bus landed in the soft-shoulder,” Cameron is quoted as saying. “Speeding was an apparent factor…It’s not for a lack of the police presence on the road.”

Several people, including family members of victims in the crash, who gathered at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital are said to have spoken of the irresponsible conduct of drivers who ply the Brown’s Town route. In recent times Superintendent Cameron is known to have expressed concern about the recklessness of drivers plying the route.