Pe­ter Ray Blood

A per­for­mance by Wit­co Des­per­a­does end­ed be­fore it start­ed on Sat­ur­day.Just be­fore 9 pm, mo­ments be­fore the band was sched­uled to per­form at the 25th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion of Smokey & Bun­ty, a car mount­ed the pave­ment and ploughed through the band, nar­row­ly miss­ing pa­trons seat­ed along the West­ern Main Road es­tab­lish­ment in St James.One spec­ta­tor was hit and was rushed by am­bu­lance to hos­pi­tal in an un­con­scious state.

A num­ber of the pan play­ers es­caped se­ri­ous in­jury, with four re­port­ed­ly go­ing to hos­pi­tal to treat cuts and abra­sions.Many of the band's in­stru­ments were de­stroyed be­fore the car came to a stop at the cor­ner of Dengue Street and West­ern Main Road. Vis­i­bly shak­en af­ter the in­ci­dent, a mem­ber of Des­per­a­does said, "This was a re­al mir­a­cle, as an an­gel seemed to be with the band.

If we were play­ing at the time many of us would have been killed or se­ri­ous­ly in­jured." Sat­ur­day al­so marked the 25th an­niver­sary of the death of Des­per­a­does' leg­end the late Rudolph Charles.Po­lice of­fi­cers, some from the Rapid Re­sponse Unit, were quick­ly on the scene. They reg­u­lat­ed traf­fic, whisked away the dri­ver and im­pound­ed the car.