It's a dangerous job, especially when the lighting conditions are less than daylight. My dad worked for the sanitation department in New York City for 26 years and had some of his colleagues get injured from debris.

A three year old tooling along on his little yellow car was crushed by a car that drove into a crowd. Others were seriously injured. Tough day in SXM....

..and another person killed as a result of an accident involving a drunk driver.

Link

And not wearing seat belts which in this day and age I can't understand. Not that it might not have made a difference but who knows.

I can tell you from 35+ years of emergency service (LEO and EMS) that I have never unbuckled a dead person. I'm sure someone will come back with the out -of-the-ordinary story where a seat belt did not stop the person from being killed like Dale Earnhardt Sr. However, in the hundreds of crashes I have responded to and the occupants were buckled in, they survived. I don't back out of my garage without being buckled in.

Here is one for you that happened to me in a car crash coming home from college 50 years ago. I wasn't wearing a seat belt, no shoulder belts then, and was thrown to the side of my bench seat before the 4x4 post came through the windshield and impaled the seat where I was sitting on the drivers side. Officer told me he expected the diver to be dead as he walked up and saw the post though the windshield.

:Like I said on my post; Someone will come up with the one in a million case where it may have been a benefit for nor wearing a seat belt. As to your post were you driving a boat? I see you stated the officer expected the diver to be dead.

Nope. That was a typo I didn't catch. Driver not diver.

And that driver was just released. No blood alcohol test given.
https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islan...involved-in-first-road-fatality-released

Well that's just great, not even a hand slapped! All they are doing is encouraging drunks to get behind the wheel because there is no penalty and vehicular homicide to boot. How do they allow this?? The French side has the right idea.

With no Blood alcohol test you can't say he was drunk.

She....

According to today's Daily Herald, the driver will be charged.

Link

And, not that it really matters, the paper today says it was a young man.

Saw that male reference...no clue where or if I saw female. One of the passengers that was involved was female and maybe I transposed.

St. Maarten police force does not have a breathalyzer?????

They do, yes. Not sure why the person wasn't tested.

Carol I just re read the 2nd paragraph in the newspaper link you posted. Am I reading it wrong?

No, your reading it right. Said they don't have one.

Sorry, I missed that. They were talking about the minister who was involved in an alcohol related accident, having been given a test, which was a blood test, so I got it mixed up.

Latest on breathalyzer from the prosecutors office.



Openbaar Ministerie Sint Maarten/ Public Prosecutor's Office Sint Maarten
19 mins ·
Clarification:

The Public Prosecutor’s Office would like to clarify a misunderstanding pertaining to the release of the young man following the fatal road accident on A.J.C. Brouwer Road on Saturday morning, January 12, 2019. There is no stipulation in the law that asserts that a test of blood or breath can be carried out subsequently, even if the driver was involved in an accident or if there is suspicion that the driver is under the influence. If a driver wants to prove that he/she is not under the influence he/she can volunteer to do a blood test.

You will not find many drunks going along with that law. LOL

So sort of Guilty until proven innocent if the offender wants to do that