Bus ends girl's dream

by Jonique Gaynor, Staff Reporter

Michelle Gardine has been forced to wear a sling ever since she was hit off a bike by a bus. - norman grindley

When 17-year -old Michelle Gardine was hit from the back of her father's bike by a bus on Spanish Town Road, St. Andrew, the bones and nerve endings in her arm weren't the only things that were shattered.

Because of the injury to her arm, Michelle's dream of becoming an athlete and representing her high school in track and field, is now just that - a dream.

A student of Holmwood High School, Michelle is angry at what she and her stepmother describe as nonchalance on the part of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), the company that owns the bus they claim was responsible.

The driver of the bus that hit Michelle allegedly ran from the scene of the accident.

On di extreme left

On the morning of January 30, Michelle was on her way to school. She recalled, "Mi fada a bring mi go school to look about mi birth certificate and to get some references. I was ridin on di extreme left and when mi look inna di mirror, mi see di bus a come, but tru a so much lane, mi neva tink seh it woulda lick mi. Mi nuh memba nothin afta dat, mi jus know seh mi get lick an drop off. Mi memba wan' lady a tell mi fi move mi hand and mi couldn't move it and den she seh it nuh look like it bruk."

The accident forced Michelle to miss school for two and a half months. She has also lost some use of her right arm and has been forced to practise to write with her left hand. Because the nerves in her hand have been damaged, she says she receives several burns when she attempts to cook. "Sometime mi hand deh pan di stove a burn, but mi nuh feel it," she said showing the burns on her hand.

Michelle feels she is being treated unjustly by the JUTC and says she visited the Spanish Town Road office the very week of the accident. "Dem tink seh people a savage or animal. Dem deal wid wi like dawg. Wi nuh hear nuttin from dem. Dem nuh care," she said.

She feels the accident has compromised her ability to succeed and said, "right now mi coulda deh Miami a run. Mi want become a nurse, an mi nuh know how dat a go happen, mi sure you haffi have two hand fi do dat deh work." The injury also brought huge financial responsibilities. Her stepmother told the STAR that she paid $45,000 to do a MRI scan and she also pays $1,500 every Saturday for physical therapy.

Michelle and her family are craving justice. "When will I get my justice? Mi want my justice. Mek dem know seh mi is not a dunce girl and mi get good average a school."

Public Relations Officer at the JUTC, Gwyneth Harold, told the STAR that in cases such as these all information that could possibly identify the bus or the driver, should be forwarded to them and to the police. She said this information would be "critical as whatever hit her did not stop. This makes it a lot more difficult." She added also that the incident was unfortunate and that the information on the bus would be needed for the investigations.

She mentioned also that any driver involved in an accident should report it to the company. "We don't want to know that we have that kind of driver. If a driver did something like that and it can be proven without a doubt, he will have to be responsible for his actions."

But Michelle says she did in fact have the license plate number and said this information was sent to the JUTC. Seemingly perplexed by the fact that nothing much had been done, Harold vowed to personally investigate the incident.

Investigating Officer Constable M. Graham from the Hunts Bay Police Station, confirmed Michelle's story and admitted that he did in fact get a license number. He said an alleged witness gave Michelle's father the number but says it was presented in a jumbled form. "The JUTC has a bus with a similar number but that bus should have been on a different route and based on the schedule, would have been nowhere near Spanish Town Road at that time." He says the case has been compounded by the fact that no witnesses have come forward. He added however that "we are still sorting through it and we are working with the JUTC."

But while documents are gathered and investigations are launched, Michelle can only wait and hope for some form of recourse and pray that her life can return as close to normal as possible.