News

Train crash kills one, injures three

Firefighters going through the remains of the truck after it was hit by a train in Bushy Park, St. Catherine yesterday. - junior dowie

RESIDENTS OF BUSHY Park were left in shock following the train accident yesterday which left one man dead and three others taken to the hospital.

One man told THE STAR he had seen the train rushing towards his house and had to run to safety moments after the bauxite train pushed a Leyland truck off the track towards his backyard.

The man who would only give his name as Joseph said he was in his kitchen cooking when he heard the loud sound and then saw the train coming towards his house. "Mi a fry two fish, yes, and mi see it (train) a come yah, a run mi haffi run wid mi pickney dem," he said.

Joseph, whose house is a few metres from the train line said when the train hit the truck, it rocked his house. "When it lick everything here so shake. Mi just see di big truck get small," he said.

The train did not hit his house, but instead stopped a few metres from the fence under a big tree. Several curious residents who gathered at the scene tried to catch a glimpse of the wreckage which blocked the roads for more than two hours.

According to police reports, the bauxite train had been travelling from Port Esquivel, Clarendon to Ewarton, St Catherine when, on reaching a section of the track that crosses over the Bushy Park main road, it slammed into a truck being driven by Mahan Tate, which had failed to stop at the intersection.

When THE STAR visited the scene some of the residents who claimed they saw the accident sought to profit and demanded money from THE STAR news team for information.

Warned

THE STAR learnt, however, that a group of men who were under a bus stop close to the track tried to warn him about the train but he did not stop.

"The truck was heading towards Gutters and some men at the bus stop were shouting that the train is coming. But when he (Tate) started to cross the train line, him stop and the train start pull up it's brake, but it still slammed into the truck," Bijean Gayle, a resident from the community said.

The truck was pushed several metres down the train track and Tate died despite residents' attempts to free him. Three men including Linton Dwyer, the driver of the train, were also taken to hospital and were said to be traumatised by the accident.

Edna Tate, the wife of the 54-year-old truck driver from Old Harbour Mews said her husband was on his way to work after leaving his son's house. His truck had been laden with top soil when the accident occurred. She said she was not clear about what happened but she could not bear to look at her husband's body as only a year ago she had buried her eldest son.

Sergeant Gary McKenzie from the Police Traffic Headquarters Accident Investigation and Reconstruction Unit appealed to other drivers to be cautious when approaching railway crossings.

"Traditionally we used to have gates at all these intersections, but the stop signs are there because once you drive up to these signs, you must stop," he said.