Marzville, family want help finding hit-and-run driver in daughter’s accident

The 18-year-old daughter of popular soca artiste Omar Marzville McQuilkin is in stable but serious condition at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) after being involved in a hit-and-run incident on Monday, and her relatives are appealing for the public’s help to find the perpetrator.

Akia John-McQuilkin was asleep in the front seat of the car driven by her partner when it was hit by another vehicle at the Brighton junction in St George around 10:30 p.m. 

Her stepmother Carisia-Ann Francois, who spoke to Barbados TODAY on behalf of Marzville, said the teenager got the brunt of the blow, sustaining four fractured vertebrae in her neck.

The driver of the car had soft tissue injury and cuts to his face and was discharged from hospital on Tuesday night.

According to Francois, Akia is conscious and able to communicate with relatives and her medical team, and her family and friends are hoping for the best outcome.

The teenager has started to regain movement in her fingers but is unable to lift her left hand.

“She is moving her legs and everything; her right hand is fine but she has pain in her shoulder and . . . she is not able to lift her left hand,” Francois said.

“The neurosurgeon is monitoring her and he will let us know if surgery is going to be necessary to help correct the injury, but he hasn’t given an official word as yet. She is conscious and alert. The past couple days have been extremely difficult for her because she has been in an immense amount of pain.

“Yesterday was the better day out of all of them because she was able to see her family. The doctors and nurses are working really well with her. She is trying, but we are waiting on the neurosurgeon. Everything has to be done for her,” she added.

The car Akia was in was travelling to St Philip when there was a collision with another vehicle, described only as a blue 4×4 truck, heading towards the City.

“The truck hit her side…. The person turned off the lights and continued driving. They didn’t stop and slow down or anything. They just hit them and kept driving. Because of the injury, she couldn’t be pulled out through the window or anything. We had to have the Fire Service come and free her with the jaws of life,” Francois said.

Hours after the accident, Marzville appealed on social media for the public’s help to find the hit-and-run driver.

Francois said although the driver of a vehicle behind the car Akia was in got a glimpse of the truck, they did not see the licence plate.

“So we are appealing to anybody who knows anybody that has a truck that got hit or anything or the sort, we just want some kind of information because it is not fair to Akia that she is in the hospital trying to fight this pain and this person doesn’t have a care for human life,” she said.

“I mean, she could have died. We thank God that she is alive, but it could have been worse. But he just decided he didn’t care so he went along. We want anybody who can give us information on this person to come forward and say something. It would assist the police in their investigations and at least it would give us some sort of comfort,” Francois added.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb ]]>