BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CIVIC-MINDEDNESS kicked into high gear last evening when a group of young men pooled their resources to rescue a number of persons from a bus that had crashed into the sea at Old Road Bay.
At about 10:50 last evening (Dec. 8), SKNVibes received information indicating that a motor bus was involved in an accident and drove over the cliff side at Old Road Bay.
Investigation conducted by this media house revealed that the vehicle involved in the accident is a blue Nissan, the property of the Apostolic Faith Church, Sandy Point, bearing the registration number PA1127. This media house also understands that the bus was, at the time of the incident, being driven by Carlisle Wilkin of Sandy Point.
SKNVibes spoke with an eyewitness to the incident, who explained that he did not quite see how the incident took place but noted that the vehicle was traveling towards Sandy Point when it struck a lamppost, breaking it in two, before plummeting into the Old Road Bay.
Another eyewitness explained that, having observed what transpired and having realized that the occupants of the bus needed assistance, he sprang to action.
“The church bus hit the telephone post and from that it reached over in the water. It hit the pole and went over the edge, hit the front and fell on its side. I had to do what the Bible said. I couldn’t watch my brothers and sisters in need of help and not give that help. Some of us went and see if we could try to get out who was in the bus. The bus was drifting further and further out into the water.”
The young man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that live electrical wires were scattered across the road because of the felled utility pole and before proceeding to provide assistance, he sought to ensure that none of the live wires posed any visible threat.
“I was making sure that there weren’t any live wires in the water so that when we go down, we wouldn’t get shocked. When I realized there were none, we jumped over into the water and did what we could. By the time we got into the water, two females were left in the bus. They couldn’t move. The others were already out of the bus.
“We wanted to break one of the windows to get one lady out, but we realized that the door could open. She couldn’t move her feet but we managed to get her out. The other lady was stuck in the windscreen, half of her body was inside the bus and the other half was outside. We managed to get her out.”
Assistant Commissioner of Police with responsibility for Operations Joseph Richardson confirmed that the incident took place at about 10:45 p.m. and explained that 10 occupants of the bus were rushed to the Joseph N. France General Hospital for treatment. While he could not state specifically the injuries sustained, he noted that one individual was “very seriously injured” and the others suffered from varying degrees of injuries.
He indicated that investigations into the incident are being made.
