Information has been received concerning the tourist who was killed in Nassau over the Independence Day weekend.
Contrary to reports in the local papers, the young man’s name was Eric Chong (not Chan as reported.)
He was a passenger in a 1998 Chevy Astro van taxi cab, registration number NP786, which was headed south on Bay Street near Coral Drive shortly after 1:00am early Monday morning.
Mr. Chong apparently had gotten out of the van while having a dispute with the taxi driver, whose allegedly rude behaviour was the cause of the problem.
While attempting to negotiate with the driver Mr. Chong was hit by an oncoming vehicle, a 1993 Ford S-360 truck, number M2485, registered in the name of Ricardo Johnson, which was also headed south on Bay Street.
An eyewitness at the scene said, “the accident was the taxi driver’s fault who tried to get away so he wouldn’t be blamed.”
While the name of the owner of the truck that hit and killed Mr. Chong has been released, the name of the taxi driver, who caused the problem, is being withheld. It is alleged that the taxi driver may have been involved in numerous other complaints and that certain people in the police and the government are protecting the driver or the owner of the cab.
There have been five people killed on Bahamian roads in the past week. 32 people have been killed since the start of the year.
This Website took a very vocal stance against the road traffic problem last year after a red truck, owned and allegedly driven by Hubert Evans, smashed into another vehicle on Bay Street and sped off. Despite the fact that leaving the scene of an accident is against the law, Mr. Evans, a PLP construction worker, was never arrested or punished for the accident, or for leaving the scene of an accident.
His insurance company, Security and General, never revoked Mr. Evans’ policy and never reimbursed the victim for the damages to her car. It is widely believed that Security and General, like numerous other Bahamian insurance companies, may be nothing but a front for other, more nefarious, financial activities.
There are three huge problems with this situation.
First, it is precisely because of the irresponsible actions of companies like Security and General, that there are so many problems on Bahamian roads. Money-grubbing insurance companies are more concerned with keeping the premiums flowing, than in making the roads safer. This particular company has no right being in business after allowing a hit-and-run driver to remain on the road.
Second, as as long as the police and the newspapers withold information to protect the guilty, the problems will only get worse.
Third, this is yet another case where a tourist has died on vacation in the Bahamas. The number of tourists who have died while vacationing in the Bahamas in the past three years is outrageous. It is only right and fair that people start making requests to the US State Department to issue a travel advisory against the Bahamas. It is getting harder and harder for tourism cheerleaders to go out there and “rah-rah” for the Bahamas when it is an overpriced, filthy destination where there are more tourists deaths than in the entire rest of the Caribbean.
This Website, among others, has for years, pointed out the problems that are destroying Bahamian society and the Bahamas tourism industry. Bahamian power brokers like to ignore criticism and the problems have gone from bad to worse. But the “noise in the marketplace” is getting harder and harder to ignore. The problems that have been highlighted for five years are the same problems that are plaguing our country now. The situation has only worsened as the government and business leaders try to ignore them and maintain the status quo. Perhaps more Bahamians should stop taking offense to criticism and start listening, before they find themselves, as the Punch says, “eating grass like goats”.
