At least 40 persons were injured and another killed last night after a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) bus transporting churchgoers, overturned along the Faiths Pen main road in St Ann.

Those injured in the accident were taken to the St Ann's Bay and Linstead hospitals for treatment.

Up to press time late last night, the identity of the person killed was not known. There were also concerns that other persons might have been killed, but were trapped under the bus.

Corporate Communications Manager of the JUTC, Reginald Allen, who was present at the scene of the accident, told THE STAR that, "we are examining the possibilities that other persons are lying under the bus."

accident

The accident occurred at around 8:45 p.m.

It was believed that there might have been approximately 54 persons, including the driver, aboard the bus at the time when it overturned and fell into a ditch.

Allen also told THE STAR that the accident might have occurred as the bus tried to negotiate a corner.

"It involved negotiating a corner and the road was wet,"Allen explained.

It was reported that the JUTC bus was transporting members of the Bayside New Testament Church of God from Portmore in St Catherine to a retreat at the Moneague College at the time of the accident.

The bus is said to have been one of four JUTC buses chartered for the retreat.

However, at the time of the accident, the other three had not yet started out on the journey.