Lears crash trial: Witness describes ‘chaos’ at scene

A witness has told the court that upon arriving at an accident scene near the Lears roundabout, she found a chaotic scene.

Kathy Greene-Lewis was testifying during the trial of Troy Emerson Clinton of Brereton Village #2, St Philip, who has pleaded not guilty to causing the deaths of Akalia Natasha Weir and a female minor by driving motor vehicle Z 72 on Lower Estate Road, St Michael, on April 21, 2011, at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public.

Greene-Lewis told the No. 5 Supreme Court before Justice Pamela Beckles that she and her husband were approaching the roundabout from St George when they noticed slow-moving traffic and realised there had been an accident. She said she and her husband, “an officer”, exited their vehicle and went to the scene.

“I saw a gentleman with a baby in his hand and my husband called the police and ambulance. I went to the man and asked him if he wanted help because he was all about the place, frantic, and he gave me the baby,” she said.

Greene-Lewis said the man was repeatedly saying: “This was not here just now when I pass… meaning the trailer that he hit”.

She looked into the vehicle, saw a woman and another child, handed the baby to another woman, and took the child before handing him over to the ambulance service when it arrived, the witness said.

“There was a young lady in the vehicle. She was just sitting there lifeless. There was another young lady sitting outside the vehicle. Her hand was barely hanging on. She pulled it off and a man took it up and wrapped it in a red shirt and put it to the back of the vehicle,” she recalled.

The area was “very dark”, she said.

Principal State Counsel Romario Straker is prosecuting, while Senior Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and defence counsel Leslie Cargil-Straker represent the accused. 

(JB)