Community angry over traffic accident as -6-y-o boy returning home from school
Christina Whyte is a broken woman. Her heart was torn to pieces last Thursday afternoon, April 10, after her only child, six-year-old Dominic Anderson was tragically taken from her during a road crash in the usually quiet Trelawny community of Jackson Town. The little boy, also known as Justin, was said to be a very brilliant and smart boy. His relatives said he loved art and was very good at drawing. His dream was to become a policeman or a solider and to take care of his mother. Those dreams were shattered Thursday when Justin was hit by a BMW motor vehicle which was reportedly being driven by a prominent Trelawny based attorney. Residents say Justin died on the spot. There are conflicting reports about how Justin was actually killed. According to reports from the Trelawny police, the boy ran across the road into the path of the vehicle. However, residents have strongly denied that report.
PROTEST
The day after the fatal incident, angry residents took to the street of Jackson Town, to protest against the boy’s death. The placard bearing residents used road debris, boulders and old tyres to block the Jackson Town main road. They also lit fire to tyres. The roadblock which caused a pile up of traffic was cleared by the police.
The residents said they were upset over reports that the child was hit as he ran across the road. Further, they are upset because the driver did not take the injured child to hospital. One eyewitness who identified himself as Machel said the child was ‘almost in his yard’ when he was hit by the speeding vehicle. The man said after he realized that the child was hit he ran and picked up the child but realized he was motionless. “Him (the driver) sey the youth run cross the road, him did not run cross the road, I was there when him hit the youth,” Machel said. “Him hit him from bout a chain, and him skate like when you push something, and me run go tek him up and bawl out sey ‘him dead’.”
He continued: “The lawyer cum out a him vehicle and sey a run him (Justin) run cross the road, me turn to the lawyer and sey a lie yuh a tell him didn’t run cross the road.”Another protestor, who identified herself as Kayon, said she was angry over the entire incident especially because she claimed the driver was speeding through the community. Kayon said she wants justice for Justin. “Him lick the pickney almost inna him yard, and a talk bout the pickney run out inna the road, a lie him a tell, we want justice,” the angry protestor shouted. Justin’s mother said the boy was very intelligent, smart, friendly, jovial and loving. Whyte said Justin was the pride and joy of the family as he would cheer up relatives whenever they felt down. “Him mek every body laugh, he was very playful, him like watch T.V,” she said between sobs. “Me can’t explain him that much now, but he was my king, he was my only child, me belly pain that,” she said of the grade one student at First Hill Primary in Jackson Town. Justin was returning home from school when he was killed. Whyte said she was at the back of her yard when the boy was hit.
Whyte said she is deeply hurt because her son hadn’t yet lived his life adding that the driver of the vehicle has already lived his life. “The lawyer him live him life already and Justin a just six-years-old and him tek fi my life just like that at six-years-old,” she lamented. Whyte said in the six years that her son was alive, she endured severe hardship as a single parent in caring for the boy.
“I am his mother and I am his father. He was my belly pain, me go through hardship, me caan say the dirty things, a no little me go through, me one,” she said, adding it was relatives who helped her during those hard times. “I lost my mother in 2007, a week after Mi have my son, my grandmother buried January 11, 2014, mi boyfriend buried February 2, 2014, and now me son,” she said the trail of death is too much for her to bear.The Trelawny police who are investigating said the driver of the car has been questioned. Up to last Friday, the vehicle was still in the custody of the police awaiting inspection from the Police’s accident investigation and reconstruction unit. Whyte said she is concerned that she might not get justice for her baby because of the status of the driver. Further she said arguments to her from the police have suggested that nothing will come from the incident.
“I just want justice, I don’t want his money I just want justice for my son,” she said. (blurb)
