St Catherine couple recalls frightening moment taxi slammed into their house

A St Catherine couple is convinced it was "by the grace of God" that their three daughters made it out alive, after a taxi loaded with passengers slammed into their house on Old Harbour Road, in St Catherine.

However, while they search for somewhere else to live, they worry about their hospitalised 62-year-old relative, the most severely injured following the incident.

The incident occurred about 10 p.m, and at dawn Friday, a gutted wooden structure, smashed furniture, appliances, clothes and other debris strewn about were all that was left of the place they called home.

Raquel Brown and her spouse Oshane Ellis are praising the heavens while searching for answers and help.

It was as if their one-year-old child sensed what was about to happen, Brown reasoned. The child wiggled out of her grandfather's arms and walked into another room. Her sisters, ages nine and 14, were nearby. They had just been sent to bed by their mother, but luckily were reluctant and moved slowly. Seconds later chaos ensued.

"I was sitting in my room and I just felt the whole place start shaking and I screamed out to my baby father 'earthquake!' But by the time I look around, is the car that me see. If me lean over I would be able to touch it," recounted Brown, noting that her first thought was the safety of her children. That's when she saw the driver exit the motor vehicle and dart past her.

"Me ask him wah happened? and him seh 'mummy me don't know wah gwaan'," she said. "Same time I heard my one-year-old baby, and I said 'help me nuh, come help', and him flash out of my hand and run. Me did a try run him down but when I remembered my three pickney dem I turned back," she noted. She later found them injured.

Her father-in-law, Joshua Ellis, 62, however, was pinned under the vehicle as its passengers, three women and two men reportedly ran from it in fright. The baby was unscathed, the 14-year-old's leg was injured, while their nine-year-old sister suffered a concussion.

The girls were released from hospital early Friday morning. However, the elder Ellis is in hospital with a broken leg and broken ribs. It took minutes before onlookers realised he was pinned under the car, and about nine men to hoist the vehicle off him before he was finally rushed for care, said his son, Oshane.

In all the chaos, people who turned up to help also started looting the scene, one man making away with Brown's handbag containing bank and identification cards. The bag was later returned on Friday without the bank cards, she said. Now, she has nowhere to sleep while her children's father contemplates moving his family in with his mom elsewhere.

Up to late morning, it was not clear what inroads the Old Harbour police had made in identifying and arresting the driver of the motor vehicle. Meanwhile the traumatised couple, who had been living at the location for about a year, said they have no desire to remain, even if the house is repaired.

Brown is a call centre operator, while Ellis is a bus conductor. They lost at least two television sets, beds, and other belongings in the disaster and are begging for assistance.

"Right now I don't know where we are going to sleep tonight," charged Brown, as he looked on at his one-year-old hanging about her mother's legs.

- Corey Robinson

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