The coroner’s court has ruled that the deaths of two persons involved in a car accident three years ago were the result of misadventure.
Chalisa Chambers, 27, and Lopez Higgins, 29, both Jamaican nationals, died when the Daihatsu Boon they were travelling in drifted into the oncoming lane of a Department of Environmental Health garbage truck at approximately 3am on 8 Sept. 2019.
“When I first arrived and looked in the vehicle I couldn’t tell that anyone was inside the car,” said RCIPS dispatch officer Melissa Taylor, who was off duty at the time.
The jury of six women and one man heard that the accident occurred around a corner, which left the driver of the garbage truck no time to avoid the accident.
“This was an unavoidable situation,” explained RCIPS accident reconstructionist Sergeant Lenford Butler. “By the time the driver of the truck turned the corner, the car was already in his lane and driving towards him. He had only a few options, break or swerve to avoid the accident, which he did, but even while swerving they still collided because there was simply no escaping the accident.”
The coroner’s court heard that upon impact the garbage truck pushed the car backwards some 80 feet onto the side of the eastbound lane.
“Based on the size of the truck it could not have been travelling more than 45 miles per hour because anything faster than that would risk him not being able to successfully negotiate the corner due to the high centre of gravity,” explained Butler.
He told the court that officers were unable to tell how fast Higgins, the driver of the car, was travelling because there were no sudden brake or tyre marks that would suggest that he tried to avoid the collision.
“From what we can tell, it’s likely that they fell asleep behind the wheel, and the car was naturally drifting off the road,” said Butler. “So it is highly likely that even if they did not hit the truck, they would have struck something else.”
Health Services Authority pathologist Kimone Fraser told the jury that both occupants died suddenly upon impact, as a result of sustaining multiple injuries.
“The engine broke through the fire wall in the engine bay, through the dashboard and onto both occupants who were in turn pushed back into the back seat of the car,” Collin Redden, an independent accident reconstructionist and former RCIPS accident investigator, told the court.
Before returning their verdict, the jury heard that Higgins had only got his driver’s licence hours before the accident, and the car, which belonged to his aunt, was taken without permission.
After a brief deliberation, the jury returned an unanimous verdict of death by misadventure.
Related Videos
