Reggae singer Renardo Lewis of longstanding Reggae group To-Isis survived a near-fatal car accident early Wednesday morning.

Lewis says he was on his way to New Kingston to pick up his wife from work some minutes after 12:30 a.m., and upon reaching the Waterloo-South Avenue intersection he stopped at the traffic light.

"I was waiting for it to change to green and I proceeded to remove my jacket which I had worn to a performance earlier in the day. When I was finished putting it on my seat, that's when I saw two bright lights in my rear view, but it was already too late for me to do anything. The Hiace bus already hit me so hard that my car was sent all the way from the traffic light to the sidewalk area where I ran headfirst into the wall of JO JO's Market," he said.

rag doll

"I was being tossed around inside the car like a rag doll. When it all stopped I tried to get out but my door was stuck, I had to give it a couple hard pushes to finally get it open. The first thing I saw was someone in a green and white shirt, and I just want to say thank you to all the people on the scene who helped me out and made sure I was okay," he said.

The motor car which was totalled in the accident was removed from the scene after the police arrived and Lewis was taken to the University of the West Indies hospital after giving his statement at the Half-Way Tree Police Station.

Tests were conducted and "all my x-rays came back clean. I, however, have whiplash and a lower back strain. I'm extremely grateful to be alive. When I think about being sailed from one side of the road, through a red light into a wall, I know God is good. I'm also happy I was wearing a seatbelt, or I could have been flung from the car. Now I'm kind of apprehensive to drive and I'm going to get nervous whenever I see a vehicle getting too close to the back of my car," said Lewis.