Driver involved in fatal bus crash offered bail

The driver of the ill-fated minibus which went over a precipice in St Margaret's Bay, Portland, on May 20, claiming the life of a teenager, has been offered bail.

Oshane McPherson, 23, was offered bail in the sum of $300,000 when he appeared in the Port Antonio Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, with two sureties.

McPherson is charged with causing death by dangerous driving, transporting excess passengers, and driving without insurance.

In court, it was revealed that about two weeks before the fatal accident, McPherson was prosecuted by the Portland police for transporting 27 passengers aboard a minibus licensed to carry 15.

On May 20, McPherson was reportedly transporting 24 students, along with an adult female, in a 15-seater minibus, when he failed to negotiate a corner at Black Hill in the parish.

The bus reportedly flipped three times before plunging over a precipice. The students were rushed to hospital, but 13-year-old Pranjal Jasti, a grade eight student of Titchfield High, was pronounced dead.

McPherson is booked to reappear in the Port Antonio Resident Magistrate's Court on September 11 to answer to the charges.