(Jamaica Gleaner) A motorcyclist was killed in a bizarre case of apparent road rage yesterday afternoon after he was kicked off course by a fellow angry biker before ploughing into a utility pole at the end of a chase on a busy Kingston street.
The deceased is 51-year-old FitzRoy Grant, a bearer of a Braeton address in Portmore.
Reports are that Grant, who had an altercation with the other motorcyclist in the vicinity of MegaMart on Waterloo Road, pleaded for mercy from his attacker after acknowledging his wrong in impeding him.
According to eyewitnesses, Grant tried to apologise to his attacker, who made advances at him and, during his bid to outride the now chaser, was kicked off balance and crashed. The death scene was hundreds of metres from the flashpoint of the initial confrontation.
“A ride dem ride down the man and kick him off the bike. Man dead instantly,” an eyewitness told The Gleaner yesterday.
“A wickedness, ‘cause the man a try get weh from the next rider and a beg fi him life, and yuh still ride down the man and do him like that? It could have been my father,” he added.
Another eyewitness confirmed the sequence of events.
“Di man apologise and the next rider a say him nah tek it so. Him did a hold up him waist, so the rider speed off and di man ride him down and use him foot and push the bike. Man crash and dead. Mi can’t believe,” he told The Gleaner.
Grant’s employers, Patsy Lyn Catering, were rattled by the tragic death of the deliveryman who has worked with them for almost a year, but who was known to them from boyhood.
Neville Lyn told this newspaper that Grant was a humble man.
“I knew his father very, very well. ‘Campie’, I called him. I bought the bike and say come do the work. Nothing about him is wrong, … do his work always on time. I don’t see this man in any wrongdoing, if him involve in anything I don’t know about it,” he said.
The caterer disclosed that he would have to seek counselling for his staff, who have been hit hard by Grant’s death and a series of bad spells that have been impacting his business.
The St Andrew North police are investigating the incident.
Statistics from the Road Safety Unit released yesterday show that 394 people have been killed on the nation’s streets up to December 3, 2019.
Motorcyclists account for 30 per cent of road fatalities. A total of 117 motorcyclists and 17 pillion passengers have been killed this year.
Fatal crashes and fatalities have increased by 15 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, when compared with the corresponding period for 2018.
The Road Safety Unit is appealing to motorists to reduce their speed and exercise caution.
Of the 394 deaths, so-called ‘vulnerable’ road users such as motorcyclists, pedestrians, pedal cyclists and pillions constitute 63 per cent of fatalities.
Traffic deaths for 2019 are projected to increase by seven per cent when compared with the year prior.