UTech bus drivers slapped with 30 charges
Afundraising drive put on in Clarendon by students of the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) to collect funds for various charities was hit by chaos on Saturday.
Drivers of two of three Coaster buses that were transporting the students became involved in an altercation with police officers who were on patrol in the town of Spaldings.
The two drivers were arrested and slapped with a total of 30 charges. The charges included obstructing traffic, disobeying police order, assaulting a police officer, failure to observe silence zone, permitting body protrusion, failing to observe pedestrian crossing, driving a vehicle with graffiti on the windscreen, and driving under the influence of alcohol.
“Students from the University of Technology who were travelling on the bus were dancing to the loud music in the roadway, while there were other students walking up and down the road asking persons for money. The police stopped and spoke to the driver and instructed him to desist from parking where he was parked and turn off the music. [The officer said that] the students should get out of the road, but he failed to cooperate and was defiant,” one of the officers said.
An attempt was made to arrest one of the drivers, who resisted. A cop reportedly used pepper spray to try to get him under control, but the cops were unable to handcuff him.
The police claimed that UTech students helped to pull the driver from their grasp and forced him into a bus, which drove away.
“We had to call for assistance from the Christiana Police Station, [from which we] got other police officers and the operation support team. We were looking for him, [but we] couldn’t find him. Then, we saw him in a bus at a nearby doctor’s office,” a policeman said.
Granville Knight, president of the UTech Students’ Union, said that no student was involved in the incident, but admitted that he left the drivers at the police station.
“It was nothing major. The issue was sorted out between the police and myself,” he said.