Four perish in market truck crash

A deadly market truck crash along the Pen Hill road in Manchester, which claimed four lives, including that of a mother of four, jolted relatives and colleagues yesterday, with some fainting over news of the tragic incident.

The deceased have been identified as 29-year-old higgler Suzie Dunwell, of Coleyville, Manchester; 40-year-old driver Donovan Peart, of All Side District, Trelawny; 39-year-old higgler Denisha Williams, of a Trelawny address; and Leila Samuda-Johnson, a higgler of Silent Hill, Clarendon.

It is reported that in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the truck was heading from Trelawny with other vendors en route to the Coronation Market in Kingston.

Upon approaching the traffic lights at Mizpah, it is reported that the truck fell into difficulties and overturned before crashing into the bus shed.

One passenger on the back of the truck – the sole survivor, who sustained injuries – managed to jump from the moving vehicle just before the accident.

Dunwell, Peart, and another person were said to have been trapped in the front of the motor truck while another was trapped in the back. They were freed by firefighters who reportedly arrived at the scene more than an hour later.

Yesterday, Dunwell’s relatives bemoaned the fact that four children are now without a mother, saying that they had pleaded with her not to make the trip as the effects of Tropical Storm Grace were still being felt across the island.

“From I heard 5 o’clock this morning, I have been sitting in the same place. It is a shock to me because I didn’t even know she left last night with all of that rain. Her mom and her husband asked her not to go, but she insisted because she had the load ... ,” said a cousin.

A sister, Melissa Dunwell, told The Gleaner that the family was struggling to cope, revealing that Dunwell’s children are 10, seven, and two years, and the youngest being eight months old.

At the Coronation Market yesterday, vendor Rosey told our news team that she and Peart – the driver of the ill-fated truck, who she called Kirk – were good friends.

“Kirk come in like a mi family; a mi best friend,” she said, adding that she heard about the tragedy about 3 a.m. yesterday and became the bearer of sad news.

“When mi come and tell dem is like the man dem panic,” she said, adding that some persons fainted at the news.

Another of Peart’s long-time friends told our news team that he was a conscious driver, so the fatal mishap was befuddling.

“Him used to conduct on bus, and then him start drive taxi, and him leave that and start drive a small white bus. Him sell the white bus and start drive this ya truck,” the friend said, adding that Peart had buried a brother earlier this year and then his sister about three weeks ago.

Some vendors questioned the rationale to brave the rains, pointing out that even under normal driving conditions, a loaded truck had its dangers.

One vendor told The Gleaner that because of the dangers involved, she had stopped making the trip to rural areas to acquire produce and now buys from other sellers at the market for resale.

Our news team was told that one of the deceased women was offered a ride to Kingston but refused on the basis that she had already packed her load on the market truck.

“The man say him call the girl and say, ‘Come’, and she say she done call the van. The man a pass and him car empty. Yuh nuh go with the man and make the load stay behind? The load nah come till it reach a town, so it couldn’t thief weh,” a vendor commented.

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