An evening of fun and victory turned to tragedy for two young men after the car which one of them was driving and in which the other was a passenger was involved in a horrific crash, near Ocho Rios, St Ann Saturday night, leaving one dead and the other badly injured in hospital.
Dead is Ruel Ferguson, unemployed of Exchange and injured with several broken bones and head wounds is his friend Carey Dennis, 28, welder of Guys Hill, St Mary. Dennis worked next door to Fergsuon’s house in Exchange and the two were good friends.
The crash took place about 9 o’clock, Saturday, May 16, on the Marvin’s Park Road, less than a mile from White River. Ferguson and Dennis were both pinned in the white Toyota Tercel that Ferguson was driving, toward White River. Passersby first removed Ferguson then Dennis. One of those who assisted told the North Coast Times they thought both occupants of the car were dead until they saw some movement in Dennis’ chest and rushed him to hospital. Ferguson’s body was laid out in bushes beside the mangled car, and covered with grass and bush.
WAILING AND GRIEF
The scene soon turned to one of wailing and grief when their relatives and loved ones of the men, who live less than two miles away rushed there in response to the news.
Ferguson’s eldest sister Dision Edwards wailed and screamed for several minutes and other people had to restrain her as she sought to throw herself at her younger brother’s body on the ground.
His younger sister, Shani who is also the girl friend of Dennis was equally grief stricken,sometimes walking in a daze and screaming that her brother was dead and she didn’t know if her boyfriend Dennis would live.
Ferguson’s father stood by the edge of the crowd using his shirt to wipe his eyes and saying he could not go and look at the body on the ground.
DAY OF FUN
The two young men were returning from a police youth club fun day at the nearby Content Gardens Oval. Ferguson had recently become a member of the Eltham Police Youth Club. The club won the football and netball competitions and friends said they were extremely happy and had been enjoying themselves all afternoon.
They left together with Ferguson in the driver’s seat of the Tercel he had acquired less than two months ago, having sold another care he owned. Reports from a driver who said his car was overtaken by the Tercel were that the car overtook two other vehicles, at a place driver’s fear, called Sexy Bump. It appeared that Ferguson lost control of the Toyota which went airborne, cut through bushes and slammed into a concrete fence wall, cracking it. The car was turned around by the impact, to the direction from which it was coming.
Ferguson, bleeding from the mouth and nose, was found slumped over the steering wheel and Dennis was turned around in the front passenger seat, his knees on the seat and his back protruding through the windscreen.
The vehicle was a mangled wreck.
As several people tried to cast blame on Ferguson’s driving and suggested he had been drinking, others said he was a good youth and they were at the event and did not see him drinking.
“He wanted to become a soldier, he was preparing for it,” said Edwards, his sister. “He was a jovial person, always smiling. My brother give no trouble unless you get him out,” she said.
Dennis was transferred to Kingston Public Hospital some six hours after he was taken to St Ann’s Bay Hospital. Ferguson had no child. Dennis is said to be the father of one child.
