Christmas Day tragedy - Two killed in Westmoreland bike crash

The festive season turned into heartbreak for two families when a fatal crash claimed the lives of 22-year-old Aundre Clarke, also known as 'Burger Man', a bike taxi operator from Whitehall, Westmoreland, and 24-year-old Tevon Allen of Lionel Town, Clarendon, on Christmas Day.

According to the Negril police, the accident occurred around 6:30 a.m. on the Nompriel main road. Clarke was driving his motorcycle with Allen as a passenger when he lost control and collided with a large boulder. Both men were thrown from the motorcycle, suffering fatal injuries. They were pronounced dead at the hospital.

Anthony Clarke, Aundre's father, resides in the United Kingdom and had not seen his son in five years. The devastating news reached him through a video of the crash scene shared by Aundre's sister.

"I was in denial, telling myself this couldn't be true," the elder Clarke said. "It wasn't until I saw the video that reality hit. I haven't stopped crying since."

The grieving father last spoke with his son in October via a WhatsApp video call. During the conversation, Aundre shared plans to visit him in the UK. "He was loved by everybody," the father said, adding that Aundre had been deeply affected by the loss of his mother in a motor vehicle accident last year.

"And now this... it's unbearable," he said.

The younger Clarke's sister, Givana Gordon, described her grief as overwhelming. "When I saw him at the accident scene, I immediately started wondering how he must have felt in his final moments," she said tearfully. "He was so young."

Givana revealed that Andre had struggled emotionally since their mother's death last November.

"It's like when mummy died he just gave up, I felt like him just gave in. His father lived in the UK, so the only person he knew was his mother and then she died, so he just felt as if he was alone," Gordon said.

She said her brother had a profound love for motorcycles and despite a history of accidents that left him hospitalised with severe injuries, he was never far from his bike.

"The second to last time they hit him off his bike he blocked out and I told him to leave the bike alone,but he could not resist the urge of riding his bike, he was attached to it," said Gordon of her brother.

She said that this Christmas was meant to be a time of healing for the Clarke family after last year's tragic loss.

We normally spend Christmas with our mother, but we lost her last November to a car accident and we buried her January of this year. This Christmas, the plan was to go to my dad's house, in Tank Hill, but unfortunately it never happened as my brother died."

The Nompriel road crash adds to a grim tally of road fatalities this year. As of Christmas Eve, 359 people have lost their lives on Jamaica's roads in 2024, with motorcyclists accounting for 33 percent of those killed, according to the Road Safety Unit.

Since 2001, holiday crashes have claimed 415 lives, with Christmas Day alone accounting for 41 fatalities. This year, 13 road deaths have already been recorded over the holidays, including seven during the Easter weekend.