MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Two men are dead and six other people nursing injuries in hospital after a four-vehicle crash on the Melrose Bypass linking Porus to Williamsfield and Mandeville late yesterday.
Police say that about 4:20 pm a truck laden with sand was descending the steep Melrose bypass towards Porus when it got out of control and hit another truck.
The sand-laden truck flipped and fell on a Toyota minivan carrying passengers as well as a Toyota SUV.
Two men (names withheld by the police) were crushed and died on the spot. The two truck drivers and two individuals from the other vehicles were taken to hospital. News subsequently emerged that two others were also hospitalised. The police theorise that they may have been travelling on the trucks.
Traffic had to be diverted to the old road on Melrose Hill following the accident.
Head of the Manchester police, Superintendent Wayne Cameron, told the Observer that the crash was yet more evidence of the need for drivers of heavy-duty vehicles to take extra precautions when travelling on steep inclines such as Melrose and Spur Tree hills.
He noted that only last week a truck laden with molasses overturned on Spur Tree blocking traffic for about 12 hours.
Cameron noted that proven competence and experience should be critical requirements for those driving heavily laden trucks, especially on roadways such as Melrose and Spur Tree.
The police were not yet in a position to give a definitive reason for yesterday’s crash.
“I would encourage employers to pay special attention to those being asked to drive these trucks,” Cameron said.
