Drivers in deadly crash remanded

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By Tameika Malone
[email protected]
Two men accused of causing the death of 45-year-old businesswoman Novelette Carlene Brooks, by their dangerous driving on Friday morning, have been remanded into police custody.
Twenty-three-year-old Kemoy Nicholas of Cedar Grove and Owen Jackson, 26, of Potters appeared before Magistrate Dexter Wason in Traffic Court on Wednesday. They were remanded into custody at St. John’s Police Station and ordered to return yesterday.
The men were further remanded and would have to seek bail in the High Court for the indictable offences.
Police reports state that Brooks was travelling westward in her silver Nissan Xtrail, on the Sir Sydney Walling Highway in front of a red Honda Stepwagon that was being driven by Jackson who was directly in front of a blue Suzuki Vitara driven by Jackson.
Investigation revealed that Nicholas was overtaking the Honda bus, when Jackson also tried to overtake Brooks who was driving with her friend Sharon Finlayson, 48, of Pigotts. The vehicles collided, both airbags deployed and the impact forced the Xtrail off the road.
Both women were rushed to the hospital by the Emergency Medical Services in critical condition. Finlayson was treated and released, but Brooks died on Monday. She had been in a coma and had suffered severe brain injury, fractured ribs and damaged lungs.
Recovering at home, Sharon Finlayson is battered and bruised from the traffic accident that claimed her friend’s life and she grieves for the woman she’s known for many years.
“I didn’t get to see her or say goodbye. I feel like if I saw her then I would understand but I couldn’t even get to rub her head and understand how badly she was hurt,” Finlayson said yesterday.
The 48-year-old woman suffered a punctured tongue, which has been swollen for days; wounds to her chin and upper lip that required stitches; bruises to her left arm, chest and face, which is still swollen a week after the accident.
The Pigotts resident said she has no memory of the traffic accident that occurred at approximately 3 a.m. on Friday.
“I lost a good friend, such a sweet girl, she was the realest. I am grateful for life and am sad because she is gone but I can’t question God,” Finlayson said sadly. “I have to eat from a straw or drink porridge. I can’t eat food because the salt or pepper burns my tongue.”
Recounting waking up in the hospital, the Pigotts woman said they went to the Triple Thursday at Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds to celebrate Brooks’ 45th birthday – three days after the actual birth date. She also recalls leaving at approximately 2:32 a.m.
“She was having a good time. It was our first time there and we were talking about it being a nice little lime and were going to go back again, because it was nice, no wilding out and police were there,” she added.

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