Three family members killed in crash

When 80-year-old Neville Haughton and other family members were heading back to St James from their farm in Westmoreland on Tuesday, little did they know that it would be the last ride for three of them.

Haughton, known to everyone as 'Crack A Bone', a landscaper of Gordon Crescent in Granville, St James, his wife, 82-year-old Iris Haughton, otherwise called 'Auntie Sis', and their 35-year-old grandson Conroy Beckford, a barber, also of Gordon Crescent, all perished in a road crash while three other relatives, including a three-year-old, were injured.

They have been admitted at the Savanna-la-Mar hospital in stable condition.

Reports by the Savanna-la-Mar police are that shortly after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the six were travelling in a Honda Stepwagon motor car being driven by Beckford.

On reaching a section of the Paradise main road, the right rear tyre blew out, causing him to lose control of the vehicle, which ran off the road, overturned, and collided into a ree.

The vehicle was extensively damaged. Iris and Beckford died on the spot, while Neville and the others were rushed to hospital, where he died while being treated.

When THE STAR visited Granville yesterday, several family members and residents had gathered outside Neville's premises known as 'Broad Yard'. Most were too dumbstruck by the news to speak to the media.

Too much to bear

One relative, who gave her name as Paulett Murray, said that the news was too much to bear, as this is not the first occasion where she had lost loved ones to accidents.

"I lost my mother in a motor vehicle accident in 1996. Then again in 2018, my husband lost his life in another motor vehicle crash in Flankers, and now Mr Neville, Auntie Sis, and Conroy come dead inna crash again," she cried.

Icilda Moodie, Iris' daughter, told THE STAR that words could not explain how she was feeling.

"My mother and my stepfather were the nicest persons you could ever meet. She was an ordinary housewife and he was a landscaper and farmer, who used to work at the Sam Sharpe Teachers' College in Montego Bay. Both of them have been together for as long as I can remember, and dem was a Christian couple who were deep in faith at the Granville Seventh-day Adventist Church," she said. "My nephew, Conroy, was a popular barber who worked at a shop along Union Street in Montego Bay, and everybody love him. Right now a don't know how the family gwan manage, it is just too much, just too much."

She said that they had gone to the farm to stock up on ground provisions. Meanwhile, the police have surmised that speeding may have contributed to the accident.

"This is another example of why motorists need to exercise caution when travelling on the roadways, and also to cease from speeding. It is a very unfortunate situation to know that a family has lost three of its members all at once, and other relatives, including a child, have been injured as a result of the accident," said Sergeant Andy Birch, sub-officer in charge of the Area One Reconstruction Unit.

Westmoreland has recorded 18 road crashes so far, resulting in the death of 20 persons. Western Jamaica now has 41 road fatalities from 38 accidents.