On 1 September, 1957, an excursion train left Montego Bay on its return trip to Kingston and met disaster halfway there. Dangerously overcrowded, it had rushed down towards Jamaica's central plains on its way back to the capital. Sometime after midnight, in wet conditions, the train derailed near Kendal, Manchester, creating a horrific tangle of wood, glass, steel and torn bodies. Of the 254 lives lost, 14, nearly 6 percent of the dead, were members of Beverley East's family.