The accident occurred on the ﾑairport roadﾴ near Lake Cunningham on Tuesday afternoon around 2pm, near the spot of a fatal collision which occurred last month, taking the lives of two Lyford Cay Club workers and one of their friends.
“[Itﾴs not] my fault,” said dump truck driver, Johnathen Hall.
“I still feel it because heﾴs a human being, but something went wrong somewhere. Theyﾴll do an investigation,” he said gesturing at officers from the Department of Road Traffic.
“I donﾴt know if he lost his head, but something went wrong because no one in their right mind would run in the road and walk in the road backwards like that. No one in their right mind would do that.”
Mr. Hall said he was traveling east on John F Kennedy Drive and had just turned around the bend that is a short distance from the Gladstone Road intersection when a man ran from the hillside near the lake.
“He just [stood] up in the road. It just happened so fast; the only thing I could do was just hold brakes. I wasnﾴt going fast. I tried to swerve off, but at the same time another car was coming and I almost ended up hitting the other car,” he said.
“I stopped someone and I used their cell phone to call emergency 911 and they dispatched someone out here.”
He said the man he hit appeared to be unconscious.
The truck driver also said that the man was well dressed and was wearing an orange shirt and blue jeans. According to Mr. Hall, he did not appear to be homeless.
“I hope he survives,” the driver said.
As he walked the police through what had happened, he explained that the brakes in Mac trucks work differently from those in regular automobiles.
A light dump truck, one without any load, does not stop suddenly, Mr. Hall said. He pointed out that these types of trucks keep sliding until they stop because they have air, rather than disc brakes.
“These dump trucks just donﾴt stop on a dime like that, like how other vehicles can stop because theyﾴre smaller. These dump trucks have a lot of weight on them. Even if they are empty with no stuff in it, they are still heavy trucks,” Mr. Hall said.
According to Inspector Walter Evans, the pedestrian was transported to the Princess Margaret Hospital before police arrived on the scene. The police did not know the manﾴs identity, he said.
However, his condition was listed as serious.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Charles Walkine noted that the particular street where the accident occurred is indeed a dangerous one.
“The pedestrian public needs to be aware that on a street such as this, persons would be making at least 45 [miles per hour], 30 minimum and they need to be careful how they cross the street,” he said.
“They need to be sure that the driver sees [them] and they stop before [attempting] to cross the street and I think thatﾴs what is being indicated in this accident.”
ASP Walkine said it was “difficult” to say whether charges would be filed in this particular case, as investigations were still ongoing.
“If it is determined that any pedestrian, heedless to traffic comes out on the road, the likelihood of the driver being charged is very slim,” he added.
Turning his attention to the accident involving the Lyford Cay workers, he said police had not yet decided whether to press charges in that matter.
Police were asking anyone who may know the identity of the man knocked down on Tuesday to call 919 or the Police Traffic Division at 393-7714/5.
Tosheena Robinson-Blair, The Bahama Journal
