The community of Priory in St Ann is in mourning and is angry over the death, following a traffic crash,of a44-year old man who spent the last 40 years of life there.Dead is Winston Forbes, known to most people as Crush, carpenter and contractor. He was pronounced dead at St Ann’s Bay Hospital some sixhours after an SUV slammed into him on the sidewalk infrontof his home on the North Coast Highway, in Priory, just outside St Ann’s Bay. Area residents are seething with anger at the behaviour of the police, hospital staff and the driver whoseMitsubishi Pajeroknocked down Crush. Police have not named the man, believed to be about 22 years old, who was driving though that is the usual practice in fatal accidents. They said the man was treated at hospital and released and will be questioned later this week. A close cousin who shared a lot with Crush said: “The van hit him down and the hospital’s negligence killed him.” Reports are that close to midnight Friday, June 27, people on the streets in the small community, that’s cut down the middle by the North Coast Highway, heard brakes screeching and saw a vehicle appearing to be out of control as it came around a corner, on the roadway travelling east. Carlton Hill who was across the road from his friend, Crush had just called out to him andCrush, sitting at his gate, had responded “Yow”, when Hill said he heard the tyres and in a flash saw the out-of-control vehicle heading for Crush. “Him was standing up and then is as if him couldn’t move and the vehicle run straight into him. Is Crush him name. Crush it crush him.” Hill, saying he still can’t get over what he saw was among the first to be across the road. One of his friend’s leg was badly damaged but he said Crush was still talking and even joking. Everybody spoken to says Crush was the life of the party, loved to joke and party and was of a bubbly spirit. Hill said he was in denial about the whole thing but he said he felt that Crush as was his nature, was putting out the best as he was taken off to hospital. “The blow that van give him wasn’t easy. And I know him could have internal bleeding,” Hill, called Goolie said. Hill put Crush in a vehicle and remained on the scene while residents decided whether they should beat the man who had been pulled from the SUV, with what appeared to be minimal injuries, most apparently from the air bag that was activated. They argued over it but no one hit the man.
SHOCKED
Crush’s closest cousin, Oneil Forbes said he got the news and was at the hospital possibly ten minutes after Crush was taken into Emergency ward. The hospital is no more than five minutes from the crash scene. Mr Forbes told The Times that his cousin was joking and chatting fine all the time, while he was in there Emergency ward with him as doctors examine him. He said he was amazed that none of nine doctors there decided to send his cousin to Kingston or Montego Bay “since everybody knows that hospital don’t have the machines to do the relevant tests for internal injuries.” He said he was there with Crush all the time when he lost blood from his leg and was taken for x-ray. What shocked him also, Forbes said was the treatment by the police of the man who was the driver of the SUV. He said though the man appeared drunk he carried a gun on his hip and police asked for it but the young man declined to hand it over. The young driver was not detained by police, however a blood test was reportedly taken. Though several people from Priory were at the hospital, none of them saw when the young man left with parents who had come there. Several allegations were made by Mr Forbes and others about what was foundin the man’s car and statements they said police made about the driving of the SUV earlier that evening. The Times put some of the allegations to the senior superintendent of police for St Ann, Yvonne Martin-Daley who promised a response. The Times is carrying out its own investigations into the allegations.
