HIT AND GONE

WESTERN BUREAU:

“Mi done fa. MJ just gone suh.”

That was the broken whisper of Sandra McIntosh-Bryan, a mother whose life fell apart the day her 11-year-old son, Jason ‘MJ’ Bryan Jr, was killed in a hit-and-run.

It was Mother’s Day 2022 – a day meant for celebration, not mourning. McIntosh-Bryan and her family had just returned from church in their quiet Meadowsvale community in St James when she sent the grade five Barracks Road Primary School student to the nearby shop. He never came back.

Moments later, the sound of tyres screeching was followed by a silence that changed everything. A speeding vehicle struck MJ and never stopped. His body was left in the road.

Bryan was one of five people killed in hit-and-run accidents in St James that year. His premature death provoked rage in the community, with residents taking to the streets to condemn speeding. The driver of the speeding car was never found, and the Bryan family was never the same.

When The Sunday Gleaner visited their St James house last week as Jamaica observes Road Safety Month, McIntosh-Bryan said that her quality of life had declined substantially since her son’s death.

Before the tragedy, she ran a fruit and vegetable stall from home. She was healthy, active, and cared for her six children. But after the tragedy, she suffered a stroke. She now cannot walk without help. She slurs her speech. She can no longer work.

“Mi get a stroke. Wah Saturday morning mi did a go market and mi find myself a lean. So mi a wonder what was happening to me and mi just drop. Mi call my husband and tell him that mi drop and can’t move. And mi just sit down same place out there in the dirt. I could remember everything that happened to me, but since that, I can’t really remember anything more. I cannot walk around anymore. Mi know seh a stress cause the stroke,” she managed to say.

McIntosh-Bryan said her loss of income has created significant hardship because her husband is now the family’s main provider. She added that their eight-year-old son is sometimes forced to bear the brunt of their financial struggles.

“It really rough on us. Sometimes not even food mi nuh have fi eat because a mi husband alone paying every bill. Mi cya move again. Mi done fa. Mi can only stay in one place now. Mi cya do nothing again so mi stall lock down. MJ just gone suh,” she said told The Sunday Gleaner.

Despite swollen feet, she said she is in better health than last year.

“A the best of me right now. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom by myself before,” she added, sparking a single moment of light in the solemn interview.

McIntosh-Bryan’s story is one of hundreds across the island.

797 hit-and-run incidents

Between 2020 and 2024, Jamaica recorded 797 hit-and-run incidents, according to data from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB). Of those, 154 people were killed. Each number represents a life – a child, a mother, a grandmother, a future ripped away.

In St Catherine Southern, there were 149 such incidents, 17 of them fatal. Manchester saw 129, with 12 deaths. But in St James – where MJ died – 17 hit-and-run cases were reported, and every single one was fatal. The police divisions of St Thomas and Kingston Central have recorded the lowest number of hit-and-run incidents over the five years, with two and three cases, respectively.

These numbers are not just statistics. They are Sandra. They are Ann Marie. They are Zayne. They are the families left shattered, sitting in dirt roads, clinging to memories and unanswered questions.

In Clarendon, 34-year-old vendor Ann Marie Beason, known lovingly as ‘Stephanie’ – a vendor of Rhules Pen, Palmers Cross – was killed on August 16, 2023. Her partner, Jason Scale, now carries the weight of raising their two children – ages five and three – alone.

He told The Sunday Gleaner that her death has caused great suffering.

“It kinda mash up [things] inna wah way. It mek everything worse. It’s still rough on me now,” Scale said.

Scale explained that they had just exited a taxi when the tragedy occurred. He said Beason rescued their small son but was unable to escape from the speeding vehicle.

“We were going home. The taxi not even drive off yet. Mi stand up at the back of the car a pay our fare and we hear likkle whistling sound a come down the road. By the time the driver go back inna the car, mi hear him say fi look out. She pushed our son out of the way and by the time mi fi draw her out of the way, the vehicle lick her dung,” he said.

Beason was one of four Clarendon hit-and-run fatalities in 2023.

The driver vanished. Like many others, who were never found.

In Westmoreland, 16-year-old Zayne Foster, a promising grade 10 student at Little London High, was hit and killed last August. According to reports, the teenager was mowed down by a speeding car after exiting a community shop. The driver did not stop.

His father, O’Neil Foster, still struggles with the loss. He told The Sunday Gleaner last week that he wishes to one day receive justice for his son’s death.

“No justice nuh come out of it. It is a very hard pill to swallow because I now have no confidence in the police,” he said. “I would have liked to see the driver spend time in jail. That is the justice we deserve. [The driver] lick dung my son and a drive up and down the same way. A me affi suffer and him a live like nothing happened and ready fi kill again.”

He recalled Zayne as a well-behaved lad.

“Nobody has ever had anything bad fi say ‘bout him. Him never trouble anybody. He was always going to school and his name never get report at the office yet, so it is kind of hard, but we have to just live with it.”

And this Easter Monday, 71-year-old Ikodel Wright was struck and killed by a minibus while walking in Cross Roads, St Andrew. Her funeral is today.

Her granddaughter, Shantel Williams, says the family is still in shock following their matriarch’s unexpected death.

“It is affecting the family because she used to cook for us, wash for us, and used to help out with the grandkids and stuff like that. We still can’t overcome it at this moment. Every morning, she would wake me up to go to work and tell me to respect my work,” Williams told The Sunday Gleaner.

A janitor and the mother of two sons, Wright was also a devout Christian who held the family together, Williams said.

“She was the head of her family. [If] anything happened, they called her first. She was the peacemaker for the family,” said Williams.

Drivers often flee unseen

Despite the heartbreak and cries for accountability, the PSTEB data highlights a grim truth: justice is elusive. Drivers often flee unseen, in darkness, or through secluded roads. Many change addresses, sell vehicles, or leave the country – especially foreign nationals who rent cars and disappear. The police told The Sunday Gleaner that in some cases, no arrests were made because witnesses were absent, licence plates were not captured, or drivers could not be tracked.

For example, only one driver was found and charged – in the Kingston Eastern Division – over the five-year span from the seven incidents.

While families mourn in silence and roads claim more lives, Dr Lucien Jones, vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council, is calling for shared responsibility between motorists and pedestrians – a call that comes with urgency, reason, and an undeniable truth: everyone must do their part to prevent the next tragedy.

“Some of the reasons why pedestrians die on our roads can be related to why they are hit in the first place, and regardless of whether people stop or not, sometimes the pedestrians are at fault. These include what we have seen in the data in recent times: pedestrians walking under the influence of marijuana, pedestrians walking under the influence of alcohol, [and] pedestrians not using the proper facilities to cross the road, such as [designated crossings],” he said.

Still, Jones was clear: no loss of life is acceptable, and the Government must do more to protect pedestrians. He pointed to several key safety upgrades – including monitored pedestrian crossings, proper sidewalks, and de-bushing in rural and overgrown areas.

Motorists, too, have to take responsibility for their reckless driving.

Speed control

is a key part

“The more people slow down, the less likely it is that when a pedestrian is hit, they will die. So once you’re travelling over 30 kilometres per hour and you hit a pedestrian, the chances of survival diminish significantly. Getting people to slow down in areas where they are quite likely to meet up with pedestrians, [such as] in built-up areas. Speed control is a key part of what we have to do and therefore, we need to enforce speeding regulations,” Jones said.

In Jamaica’s most pedestrian-heavy areas – like downtown streets, school zones, and busy marketplaces – Jones insists speed control and enforcement must be front and centre.

And that’s where he suggests technology must step in.

“We’ve been calling for the use of cameras now to detect red-light infractions and speeding. I’m impressed by the possibility of using the technology to detect average speed over distance, whereby if you put a camera at the beginning … and at the end of the toll, you can calculate the speed – the time that you would arrive at Point B from Point A – very easily. And if you arrive at a shorter time, then [you] automatically get a ticket. Once you advertise these things, then some of the ‘skating’ going on on the toll, as it is popularly known, will cease, and this is where the penalties come in,” Jones explained.

Jones told The Sunday Gleaner that such systems should not exist in isolation but must work in tandem with the merit point system outlined in the Road Traffic Act. This system allows for the suspension of driver’s licences after the accumulation of traffic demerit points. But the mechanism, he said, is currently not functioning as it should.

“If you accumulate more than a certain number, then you can have your licence suspended. This is a powerful tool, and it’s now not working. We need to get it fixed like yesterday,” Jones said.

Between 2020 and 2024, pedestrians have consistently fallen among the most vulnerable road users, suffering the second-highest number of casualties, falling behind motorcyclists. Up to last Friday, motorcylists were leading the fatalities for 2025, acounting for 46 of 167 deaths (28 per cent). Pedestrians were second with 37 deaths (22 per cent). Private motor vehicle drivers were next with 33 deaths (20 per cent).

rochelle.clayton@gleanerjm.com