WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— The defence team for the driver who has been charged with five counts of causing death by dangerous driving are reporting that they have placed their hands on a vital video of the accident, which could implicate the truck driver.
The driver of the Toyota Voxy, Delroy Rodney, whose vehicle collided with a truck on November 13, made his first appearance in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on Thursday, since he was granted bail in the sum of $7 million a week ago.
“I am making an obligation on their statement that they were going quite fast. I have seen a video that is suggesting collision could have taken place on the soft shoulder and not on the road,” attorney-at-law Lambert Johnson said, noting that Rodney’s defence team has been strengthened as attorney Shanique Sommerville joins himself and Faith Salmon.
However, Johnson’s statement was met with a surprising revelation as the police later confirmed that the truck is back with the owner.
Johnson and the legal team who had pointed fingers at the driver of the truck are requesting that the black box of his vehicle be tested.
The black box is expected to tell the speed just before collision.
“I am perplexed [and] puzzled that they were able to analyse the black box of my client, Mr Rodney,” Johnson said to the prosecution.
Senior judge Courtney Daye who is presiding over the case questioned how the police will secure the truck from the owner and come to the issue of analysis.
“In the public interest I think it is incumbent on the police to go and retrieve that truck. It is too important of a matter to slip and slide; the request was made from December,” Johnson stressed.
Rodney is to return to court on June 7, where it is expected that the accident and reconstruction report will be ready along with the report from the post mortem.
“The case cannot go any further. There is much more to be done. Bail is extended,” Judge Daye said.
The crash victims : 15-year-old schoolgirl Lavecia Forrester and her 39-year-old mother, Petrina Wallace, of Gordon district in Whitehouse, Westmoreland; Oneil Allen, and his mother, 65-year-old Angela Samuel, both of Mount Edgecombe; and 54-year-old Janet Thompson of McAlpine, also in Westmoreland died on November 13, after the vehicle Rodney was driving collided with a truck.
It is reported that about 3:30 pm on November 13, the five people and another passenger were aboard a grey Toyota Noah being driven by Rodney when the minivan collided with a truck, which was travelling in the opposite direction.
Kimberley Peddie
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