… While parents call for better traffic safety on Oleander St.
As motorists we hardly think of a vehicle as a deadly weapon but that’s just what it is when used recklessly. And as News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports, while death is tragic, victims who survive tell heart wrenching stories.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
In 2006, traffic accidents resulted in forty-seven deaths and six hundred and fifty-two serious injuries, making it the sixth leading cause of death that year.
The cause of the collisions varies from negligent drivers to careless pedestrians, but regardless of whose fault it is, the results are rarely painless.
Seven year old Tangi Miller has been a patient at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital since March eighth. On that day the child was knocked down near her home on Oleander Street.
Natalie Adolphus, Witnessed Accident
“The puppy mi di chase ah and same time I lift my head, I see a car di come. When I see the car di come dah because the lee gial run straight up into the car, straight up into the car and dah so the bwai di try brakes but the car mi deh pan ih foot, yuh understand.”
Claudette Miller, Mother of Injured Child
“Her ankle is broke, her shin is broke and above the ankle and to the side of the ankle, all the meat tear out, so she has to do skin graft. She is always in pain and she has also a head injury because the first x-ray show that she had a swelling on her brain. So the doctor says they will give her medicine to try waste it away but I don’t know if its waste already because she has pain in her head.”
According to area resident Natalie Adolphus, Tangi’s accident has only increased her fears for the safety of her two young boys and the many other children who traffic the area everyday.
Natalie Adolphus
“Sometime every time you hear a car you have to look out because you never know who or what deh pan the street. Lotta pikni live inna this yard and pikni from ovah deh come ovah this yard yah and sometimes eh yah vehicle deh drive too fast. You know, and the pikni deh play ball dah evening time so they need to put a lee speed bump right pan this street yah mein.”
Tangi has had three surgeries and is getting regular skin grafts. But with physical therapy she is expected to make a full recovery. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
The driver of the vehicle, twenty-two year old Jerome Ellis has been charged with Driving without Due Care and Attention and Negligent Grievous Harm. Ellis and his family have been assisting the Millers.
