St Catherine records first road death

Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

A TEENAGER became the year's first road fatality in St Catherine on Tuesday after the car he was driving ran off the Mandela Highway.

Seventeen-year-old Anthony Johnson who lived at March Pen in the parish, died after he was thrown from the vehicle.

The Central Village police report that at 1:30 p.m. Johnson and two other men were travelling on Mandela Highway in a 2005 Nissan Sunny motor car.

At about 200 meters from the entrance to Caymanas Bay, the driver lost control of the vehicle. It ran into a cane field.

Johnson was killed on the spot while the other two passengers were taken to the Spanish Town Hospital where they were admitted.

The police said their initial investigation revealed that the car was speeding.

Last year, the National Road Safety Unit's target of under-300 road fatalities was surpassed with 325 persons killed in road accidents.