Cop among five dead in separate crashes

KINGSTON, Jamaica—The carnage on the nation’s roads has resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police constable, within a 12-hour period. Police said four fatal crashes happened between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning in Clarendon, Westmoreland and St James. In the first incident, about 3:00 pm on Friday, Opheal Hyman, 41, a groundsman of Santa Hill district, Spalding, Clarendon, succumbed to injuries he sustained during a collision with a truck on the Nine Miles main road near Spalding. The Manchester police division, which has jurisdiction over Spalding, is investigating the incident. In the second incident about 8:45 pm on Friday Jevoy Wheatle, otherwise called "Pepe", 23, a labourer of Gravel Hill in Milk River, Clarendon and Ackeem Thomas, 24, a labourer of Race Course in Toll Gate, Clarendon died from injuries they sustained when the two motorcycles they were traveling on collided with a Nissan Tiida on the Swansea to Four Paths main road in Clarendon. In St James, police said about 11:50 pm, a pedestrian whose identity has not yet been ascertained died from injuries he sustained after he was hit by a Mark X motorcar on the Rose Hall main road. In the wee hours on Saturday, police Constable Chadrick Cooke succumbed to injuries he sustained on the Farm Pen Road in Westmoreland in a two-vehicle crash. He was assigned to the Frome Police Station. Statistics from the police show that up to 6:00 am on Saturday, 232 fatalities were recorded from 199 crashes on the nation’s roads, compared to 263 fatalities from 229 collisions for the corresponding period last year. — Kasey Williams