Road deaths more than statistics
The pain and frustration of a grieving mother trying to bury her teen daughter
BLAND REPORTS of the 374 crash deaths since January shroud any true reflection of Toniesha Newman-Hudson’s ordeal since losing her teenage daughter Rayana Anderson following a motor vehicle accident.
Beyond the numbers, the mother battles pangs of regret, remorse, and a lengthy postmortem process that threatens her sanity – much like the phone call from doctors at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) on September 10.
That call outlined that her “17-year-old baby” – who for weeks had been undergoing intensive head surgeries following a crash on the North-South Highway on July 25 – “unfortunately had passed”. The words quivered from Toniesha’s lips, dragging tears down her cheek with them.
Amid her whirlwind of thoughts – Rayana asking her permission to go on the ill-fated trip to Ocho Rios, she declining for lack of funds, the teen then requesting and receiving money owed to her by her grandmother, and the final phone calls before the crash en route back to Kingston – Tonisha must now make painful funeral arrangements.
POST-MORTEM WOES
But before that, she, like dozens of Jamaicans, awaits a post-mortem on her loved one. This, she said, has been pushed back multiple times, shelving proposed funeral dates and extending the family’s grief. Sometimes she was told the body was too frozen for an autopsy, she said.
“Trust me, this whole government thing in terms of deaths and how they handle postmortems for people who have died from gunshots or accidents is so poor,” lamented Toniesha, describing it as draining, the “back and forth” between the hospital, police, and all the other places.
“I have been trying to get the autopsy done, and I know that it might be a limited number of pathologists but speediness by the government is needed,” she said, her eyes red. “People are losing their loved ones and then they have to be waiting over a month to get the body to be buried, that is really heart-rending.
“Losing a loved one and then having the grief to carry, and then you have to prepare yourself for that day when you are going to look at that person for the last time, it is very hard. It pains my heart to know I have my daughter there (morgue). She has been dead since September, we are in the process of doing a funeral and we’ve still not received the body,” the mother shared.
Rayana was a past student of Alpha Academy for Girls before she enrolled in the sixth form at St George’s High School.
Her mother’s request to have a private post-mortem was declined as the crash was said to be a police matter.
On Friday, Dr Judith Mowatt, executive director of the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, said the number of pathologists remains unbearably low, with only six serving the 14 parishes. Examinations are done six days a week in Kingston and Spanish Town, and also in the west.
“There is not enough (pathologists), not by a long shot. We are going to have to attract more people,” said Dr Mowatt, noting that while there may not be a heavy backlog, the daily intake is high.
Motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and gunshot wound victims account for much of the volume, she said, concurring that at times bodies are too frozen for autopsies.
At other times, families turn up without relevant hospital documents or investigating police officers are absent. In either instance, the autopsies have to be put off, she explained.
“Recently we had six persons on the list. Three were not done because the police did not show up,” the doctor told The Sunday Gleaner.
Late Friday evening, Toniesha got a call that her daughter’s autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.
CRASH NUMBERS ON THE RISE
Toniesha’s cries follow recent reports by the Registrar General’s Department (RGD), indicating that deaths have been on the rise in Jamaica in recent years. The data suggests that in the last 10 years, 2012 recorded the lowest number of deaths with 16,999, while some 20,936 persons lost their lives in 2019. Recent figures do not include deaths that would have come from COVID-19, the registry noted.
Dr Lucien Jones, vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), expressed condolence upon hearing of Toniesha’s ordeal, noting the devastating impact on families and those injured in motor vehicle crashes. He said that the NRSC has been embarking on several initiatives aimed at reducing road fatalities, but according to the expert, 2021 figures could surpass those for last year. October, however, has seen a downward trend, he noted.
“Last year we had, I think it was 432 road fatalities; the projections from the Mona Geoinformatics Institute are that we may hit 455 this year if nothing dramatic happens. So the numbers right now are not looking good in that respect,” he continued. “However, for October there has been a significant slowing down, compared to the rest of the year. So we are hopeful that trend may continue.”
Jones said the Government has been taking a safe systems approach, which entails ensuring vehicles and roadways are safe, that pedestrians and others use the roads safely, and that there is an up-to-date post-crash system. Motorcyclists remain the group with the highest morbidity in Jamaica, with more than 100 deaths so far this year, Westmoreland being the main a hotspot.
“So we’ve had a programme going on in Westmoreland for some time now, and we plan to increase that programme with international assistance to try and provide helmets for the motorcyclists in addition to the training that is happening now,” he explained, adding that he continues to wait on the enactment of the long-overdue amended Road Traffic Act.
Jones said the NRSC has been lobbying for agencies responsible for safe roads to do their jobs, noting that a list of bad spots submitted by Gary Allen, head of traffic for recommendations, is yet to receive attention from the National Water Commission.