More than 30 years of motorcycle driving culminated in tragedy for 50-year-old Winston Pinnock, who drew his last breath in Kingston Public Hospital a day after he sustained serious head injuries in a Clarendon crash on Sunday, January 20.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) said the Eagle motorcycle, which Pinnock was driving about 5:30pm, crashed into a Mazda station wagon on the Dam Main Road – not far from Kellits in Clarendon.

The private car involved in the crash was transporting five people from church.

Caswell Pinnock, a former general election candidate of the Jamaica Labour Party, admitted that, from all indications, his late brother, who lived in the Reckford area of Clarendon, was not wearing a helmet.

Winston Pinnock

“My brother had some head injured – extensive injuries,” he told The Beacon, adding: “From all indications, he wasn’t wearing a helmet.”

A resident who was early on the scene of the crash said, had Pinnock been wearing his protective gear, he probably would have survived. “If he did have on a helmet – I don’t say he wouldn’t break somewhere, but I don’t think whatever happened to him would have happened to him that way. The helmet would be there to take off the lick off his head.”

Stephanie Pinnock, daughter of the deceased, said her father ‘usually wears a helmet’.

She sent The Beacon the photo below, showing her father in the protective gear while he spent his final moment playing with his only grandson two Saturdays ago.

Winston Pinnock playing with his grandson two Saturdays ago when they last met

The JCF, in the meantime, said the driver of the car involved in the crash was treated at hospital and released.

He was badly ‘shaken up’ by the crash, a source said.

The car driver, it is understood, swerved to avoid directly hitting Pinnock who reportedly was driving his motorcycle speedily in the middle of the rural roadway.

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Reports are that, when the car driver quickly tried to avoid a head-on collision, the motorcycle slammed into the right front tyre of the car, blowing it out. It also damaged the front end and other sections of the car.

Pinnock, who initially was taken to May Pen Hospital in Clarendon, was transferred to Kingston Public Hospital where he died at 1:30pm on Monday, January 21.

By Horace Mills, Journalist

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