The police have arrested a man believed to be involved in a hit-and-run that resulted in the death of an 11-year-old boy along the Ferry Service Road in St. Andrew.
According to reports, the deceased, Duran McKenzie, was a resident of Ferry District and was returning home from school at the time the incident occurred on Tuesday. It is not clear if McKenzie was by himself, but reports state that he had departed a bus and was walking along the road when a 2019 Ford Transit vehicle hit him.
The male motorist driving the Ford did not stop to assist the 11-year-old who died from the injuries he sustained. Using the car’s licence plate, the police tracked down the driver of the vehicle, who was later arrested.
The driver’s identity has not yet been shared with the public, but the man is reportedly a resident of Portmore. Following McKenzie’s death, the Vice Chairman of the National Road Safety Council, Dr Lucien Jones, urged pedestrians to use the designated crosswalks on the Mandela Highway.
“All pedestrians on the Mandela Highway have to be extremely careful and use only the overhead bridge to cross the road. To try and cross that road ten yards away is courting disaster and death and injury,” Jones said.
Jones also highlighted that the highway has a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour, and once a car is moving faster than 30 kilometres per hour, the likelihood of a pedestrian surviving a collision is dramatically lowered.
