Seymour: I was ‘one inch from death’

Cabinet Minister Dwayne Seymour has recounted for the first time the terrifying car accident that he says left him “one inch from death”.

Seymour, speaking in Parliament on Friday, reflected on a “rough six months” since the accident last August.

And he told how he had rolled out of the moving vehicle, fearing it would explode, during the crash.

The Compass reported at the time that Seymour’s car had collided with the arm of a CAT excavator that was extending into the road in Bodden Town in the early morning hours of 8 Aug. 2024.

Speaking Friday, Seymour said the crash left him with a gash so deep you could have “climbed down into it”.

He added, “I saved myself that night. I jumped out of the vehicle and rolled so I didn’t hit the light pole in the car. The car was flaming and I thought it was going to blow up.”

The minister said the accident had helped him get perspective about what was important in life, especially his six children.

Reflecting on the last four years during a series of valedictory speeches to mark the end of this parliamentary season, he said he had always done what he thought was right for the country.

And he said he had always been ready to turn up and pitch in when he was needed.

“Four days after that crash I was up in Cabinet with a bandage on my head and bleeding.

“I said I am only coming for an hour and I ended up staying for seven. I did it for country, because I was needed.”

Seymour, who ran with the Progressives last time out, said he had switched over to take a Cabinet role because he felt it was best for the country. But he said his sympathies were still with the party, adding, “I have always known them to care about the common man.”

In the days following Seymour’s accident, two youths were arrested for apparently interfering with the excavator that his Chevy Tahoe collided with in the accident.

Police indicated at that time that the excavator had been moved from where it had been secured by its owner, creating a hazard in the road. No further information has been released and the Compass understands that no charges were brought.

There was controversy at the time as to why a blood alcohol sample was not taken from the minister following the crash.

Police insisted a sample was requested for investigative purposes and claimed the attending physician objected to that request.

This triggered an outright denial from the Health Services Authority, which stated that the RCIPS officers who attended the hospital and who requested the sample did not provide the necessary testing kit as per the established procedure to obtain blood samples.

Police, in a later statement, said following discussions with the HSA’s deputy chief executive officer, Police Commissioner Kurt Walton opened an inquiry into the incident. They have not provided any update on that inquiry since that time.