Jason Pinder, 26-year-old bar tender, was looking forward to his day off Saturday, May 16. He had finished his 3-11 pm shift at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios and stayed behind to help out a colleague before heading off to his family home in Portland.
Within ten minutes of leaving the hotel he was dead, after his Toyota car crashed and overturned, pinning him inside, near White River on the St Ann/St Mary border.
White River is also the name of the community from which the 26-year old bartender came.
His team mates say, he looked forward to going home to White River Norwich, near Port Antonio, on his days off or on weekends. Last weekend, it meant he’d have time away with family and wouldn’t be returning to work until Sunday evening. During the week he lived in Golden Grove St Ann, much nearer to work.
Police said Pinder was the only one in the dark green Toyota traveling the 90 kilometers to Portland, when shortly after leaving the resort, about a mile away, and crossing the White River bridge, near to the Farmers Market and Kitchen Plus, Pinder apparently lost control of the car which climbed an embankment, smashed a wall and went over a fence, flipping onto its top. The top of the vehicle had to be cut away to remove Pinder. Pinder was pronounced dead at hospital. Police said it appeared the car was speeding.
One of those to see him at the scene was bar manager Errol Curtis. Mr Curtis says he was at home and woke up just before 3 a.m. He picked up his phone and, as he often did away from work, was about to check if there were any messages or texts about the job. The phone rang. He was told that Pinder was involved in an accident. Mr Curtis went to the scene and his last act was to remove Pinder’s name tag that the bar man was still wearing, before he was taken to hospital.
Mr Curtis described Pinder as “neat, clean always well put together”. He said Pinder had come to Sandals as a hospitality trainee five years ago and it was part of his (Curtis’) job to train him. Curtis said Pinder had the right attitude and approach which is why he was able to nail down the jon. “He was humble, clean, punctual, well behaved and you didn’t have to be running behind him to get the job done.”
He said Pinder, though a quiet person, often joked with others. He said he and two others and Pinder were having some man talk Friday evening after Pinder had prepared his area and before it opened for guests. He said they laughed and joked. That was the last time he saw Pinder before seeing him at the crash site.
“He loves what he does and wanted to be an F&B (food and beverage) person,” said Curtis. “He was always having different drink mixture ideas and had ideas for recipes and so on.”
He said Pinder was well loved by the staff.
