FIVE DEAD, ONE FAMILY - ‘Mi lose mi grandson, two nephews, two cousins’ ... Crash leaves relatives devastated

Twenty-year-old Tajay Murray wanted to serve his country in law enforcement, and applied for enrolment to the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force.

Although neither entity accepted him, he did not give up hope, even though he also had plans of attending aviation school to become a pilot. In the meantime, the Jamaica College (JC) graduate was employed at a call centre, working from his home in Border, St Andrew.

Like many youth within his age group, Murray loved motorcycles and shared a tight bond with his cousins, 20-year-old Raheem Campbell, Jamie Marriot, 24, Romario Moodie, 17, and 18-year-old Anthony Fuller. All were described as "ambitious and jovial".

The five will never get a chance to realise their dreams, as they perished in a horrendous vehicular crash along the Temple Hall main road in St Andrew on Sunday night.

"Mi lose mi grandson, two nephews and two cousins. From mi see di picture of one of mi nephew come on the phone, mi know say everybody dead because is all a dem travel," said Inez Phipps, Murray's grandmother.

She is also the aunt of Marriot and Fuller, and cousin of Campbell and Moodie.

As she and other relatives visited the crash site yesterday morning, all wore a look of desolation. The motor bike fragments and blood marks dealt a painful memory.

"Tajay go JC and him get scholarship and say him want to be a pilot, but this call centre thing come in and him start work. Right now all a the equipment dem in the house. In a December mi tell him say it better him gwaan a the pilot school and him say 'grandma mi soon guh'," Phipps reminisced. "A just January him tell mi say him a guh buy a car, enuh, but him a build him house first.

"All a who dead a humble people and most people don't know because dem see dem buy dem bike and they didn't know that they were working. My grandson was working at the call centre but because he is at home people will take dem a scammer because dem don't know where dem get bike from. They loved farming and the amount a pigs dem have. Jeezas Christ man," she said, holding on to a tree for support.

The Stony Hill police said about 10 p.m., the young men were travelling on three motorcycles towards Temple Hall. The drivers reportedly lost control of the vehicles and collided with a Toyota Hiace that was travelling in the opposite direction, causing it to overturn. The young men, who were reportedly returning from a party, died on the spot.

"A bingo party did a gwaan in the district and mi tell him say him (Murray) must go to that one, but him say him friend having a party in Stony Hill and him and him cousins going, but him never make it back home," Phipps said.

Indiana Campbell, Raheem's mom, said she nearly fainted as she had no idea that the teenager had left home. She said he was anticipating polishing his mechanic skills and "getting certified at the Jamaican-German Automotive School.

"Four of them was at mi house in the evening, enuh, and Raheem all share food with one of them. Them is all family and was there fixing bikes," she said. "Mi hear the van park and mi hear a bike, but mi never know he was on the bike going away again. I thought he was upstairs."

"The five a dem don't left dem one another," said Althea Davidson, Moodie's mother. "Mi have a next son and if more bike was there him woulda gone with them too."