BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SYLVESTER ALLEN yesterday (Feb. 15) appeared in the Basseterre High Court before His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas and was spared a custodial sentence but fined EC$15 000 for dangerous driving.
Allen, whose trial was scheduled to begin yesterday, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and dangerous driving. He however pleaded not guilty to the former and guilty to the latter.
According to the facts read in court, on July 28, 2009, Allen allegedly caused the death of Terrence Browne who at the time of the incident was crossing the Island Main Road in the vicinity of Brighton Estate.
The court was told that around 8:00 a.m. on the day in question, Allen, a bus driver by profession, was travelling from Basseterre to Molineux when Browne ran across the road and was hit by the bus.
The facts also indicated that an eyewitness said they saw Browne ran across the road and that the accused was driving at 40-50 miles per hour.
The witness said he saw the bus “sliding” and Browne rolling several feet away after the impact.
The deceased was taken to the hospital where it was revealed that he suffered a head injury and also a dislocated pelvis. He was discharged from the hospital on August 13, 2009 and died on August 15, 2009.
An autopsy was performed by resident pathologist Dr. Adrian Quintana who concluded that “death was due to traumatic shock as a consequence of multiple injuries”.
The 49-year-old Allen was being represented by Barrister-at-Law Vincent Warner, who made mitigations on behalf of his client.
Warner said his client did not waste the court’s time as he “came to the court and offered to change his plea and save the court valuable judicial time”.
“I have perused his criminal record…he has no previous convictions. My client was a married man up until recently and he has eight children; five of whom are under the age of 18 and dependants of him. He was also faced with a court order of maintaining his ex-wife and so he has to maintain six persons including himself,” Warner said.
Warner also made two recommendations for His Lordship to consider before sentencing.
He recommended that his client be put on a bond, stating that “he is no danger to society or has a criminal record”.
“And two, in the alternative, I would like His Lordship to consider a fine…payment over a considered reasonable time. I don’t think the charge warrants a custodial sentence; it was an accident that could happen to anyone of us. I plead for mercy on behalf of my client,” Warner said.
Before passing judgment, His Lordship said that he would like to highlight several factors.
He said that the accident occurred at a peak hour at 8:00 a.m., the deceased who ran across the road was 57, Allen was driving at 40-50 mph, the accident occurred in the area of a university and the road is about 20 feet wide.
“This is not an ordinary case, this rest fundamentally on speeding,” Justice Thomas said.
“I will spare you the custodial sentence but you will be fined EC$15 000. You will have to pay EC$5 000 by the 15 of March 2011 or spend 15 months in prison with hard labour, and the remaining EC$10 000 will be paid by August 2011 or spend one year in prison.
“Also, the evidence spoke of the bus sliding which means either the road was wet or there were gravel stones on the road. Any concerned driver would have paid attention to that, so your license is suspended for one year from today’s date,” Thomas said.
Following the ruling, Allen spoke to SKNVibes exclusively and said that he felt the sentence was harsh.
“Driving the bus is my livelihood and I have my children to look after. Seeing now that my licence is taken away, and charging this lot of money, I don’t know where I will get it right now. There’s nothing I can do…the judge’s decision is final but I’ll try and see if I can get a little break to help myself.
“The gentleman ran across the road…I was coming and he ran across. I tried my best to avoid hitting him. I pull off on the seaside but the bus slide and end up hitting him,” he said.
