BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS turned to tragedy yesterday when a middle-aged man died in a bizarre accident at Yearwood Road, Black Rock, St Michael.
Edward Gibbs was the only passenger in an SUV when it crashed into a house. He died on the spot.
Driver Nevado Boyce of Holders Hill, St Michael, suffered injuries to the face and other parts of the body and was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was reported to be in stable condition last night.
The Goodland, St Michael deceased, affectionately known as “Jimmy”, had just celebrated his 51st birthday on Sunday with friends, drinking outside his home until the wee hours of yesterday.
Close friend and neighbour Shirley-Ann Griffith was among those partying with Gibbs when she decided to leave around 3 a.m.
She spoke of seeing Gibbs leaving homein the company of Boyce.
A series of events apparently took place afterwards, ending with Gibbs’ death.
Just around 5:20 a.m., 45-year-old Allison St Rose, awakened by a commotion in his St Stephen’s Hill, St Michael neighbourhood, looked outside and saw three men involved in a rock-throwing incident.
According to him, during the melee, the SUV slammed into his car, which was parked in the driveway, causing serious damage.
He said the two men in the SUV drove away, leaving the vehicle’s front bumper.
Minutes later and less than a mile away, the SUV crashed into the home of Joan Holder at Yearwood Road, Black Rock, St Michael, causing structural damage to the house and extensively damaging her car, which was parked in the garage.
The 55-year-old cake and pastry tutor was just preparing to go for her morning walk when she heard a loud impact on the house.
When Holder looked outside, she saw a dreadlocked man slumped forward in the passenger’s seat while another man crawled out of the vehicle covered in blood.
“It not only damaged the side of the house and write off the car, but a number of things like the television, my exercise machine and other things were all damaged,” she said.
The collision also disrupted electricity and telephone lines attached to the home.
