JUTC given 21 days to pay $106m to 30 bus crash victims

Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator



Thirty-passengers injured in a 2010 bus crash were this morning successful in obtaining a court order demanding the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) pay out approximately $106 million in damages.



Attorney-at-Law Sean Kinghorn who is representing the claimants told The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre that the company has 21 days in which to comply with the statutory demand.



He says if that is not done, he will apply to the Supreme Court to have the JUTC wound up in order to recover the millions.



This morning Justice Bryan Sykes granted the formal order on the basis that 30 of 32 cases had been settled on terms endorsed by the lawyers representing both parties.



The case in relation to the other two will have to go before the Supreme Court for assessment of damages.



A negligence suit was brought against the State-owned company arising from an accident on October 15, 2010 in which a bus transporting passengers to a church retreat overturned along the Faiths Pen main road in St Ann.



It was reported that 40 passengers were injured and 16-year-old Bridgeport High school student, Jodian Henry, died after the bus plunged over a precipice.



Policewoman Rosalyn Bell-Wilson was the first passenger to sue the JUTC.



When the claim was first filed in October of 2010, the JUTC denied liability.



The company said the driver, Jeremy Stewart, should not have been at the wheel as he did not report to work on October 15, and was only authorised to drive at the depot.



JUTC also argued that the passengers were negligent because they were on the bus engaging in religious worship and at some point were not seated.



However, Kinghorn applied to the court to strike out JUTC’s defence on the grounds that it was not reasonable and was an abuse of the court.



A demand to settle the matter came before Justice Sykes in February this year and was adjourned on the basis that the matter was before the Cabinet for payment.



Last week Friday, Attorney-at-Law Jalil Daboub, representing JUTC, indicated that the matter was no longer before the Cabinet and the money would have to be paid by the company.



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