Witnesses testify in dangerous driving trial

Multiple witnesses have given evidence in a Supreme Court trial in which a St Philip man is accused of causing two deaths by dangerous driving in a 2011 crash.

Troy Emerson Clinton of Brereton Village #2, St Philip, is accused of causing the deaths of Akaila Natasha Weir and a female minor by driving a motor vehicle on Lower Estate Road, St Michael, on April 21, 2011, at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public.  

Principal State Counsel Romario Straker and Acting Senior State Counsel Tito Holder are prosecuting the case, in which Senior Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and attorney Lesley Cargill-Straker represent Clinton. Justice Pamela Beckles presides.  

Curtis Forde, a heavy-duty truck driver who works for a construction company, told the court that on that date he was instructed to move an excavator and assist with a bulldozer which was stuck in the mud.  

He said he made arrangements with several men from a plantation to escort him to the site to offload the excavator and move the bulldozer.  

“When I unhook the trailer and take off the excavator, I walk round the trailer and I leave in the truck and went and get something to eat to come back. That same night I got a call from a guy from the plantation that a vehicle run into the side of the trailer and on my way up to the scene, I see police, the ambulance service and the fire service was on the scene,” he said.  

Stating that the trailer was facing in the direction of Lears roundabout and was a good distance from it, Forde said that he had arrived with the trailer after 5 p.m. 

He told the court that reflectors had been located “all around the trailer”, including the front, back and sides.  

Asked by Pilgrim whether he agreed that he parked the trailer on the wrong side of the road, the witness stated, “I parked it on the right side of the road for the work that I was doing,” adding that his work had not been done because the excavator had to be transported to Yorkshire.  

Forde also stated that he left flagmen there but “I cannot tell you what the men were doing when I leave.”  

Shown police photos of the scene, he said he did not see reflectors on the front of the trailer, but stated, “right there to the edge where you see the fellow hit, a reflector was right there.”  

The witness denied that anyone told him to put reflective tape on the trailer after the accident.  

David Bynoe, owner of the taxi van driven by Clinton, said that the accused had come into his employ in the early 1990s.  

He recalled that on April 21, 2011, after arriving home around 7 p.m., he received a call from an unknown man who informed him that his vehicle had been involved in an accident.  

He told the court he drove to the scene and saw the vehicle, a Toyota Custom, “entangled with a trailer”.

Several officers, including the police photographer, also gave evidence during the proceedings.

(JB)