8 Year Old Girl Injured In St David’s Collision

October 15, 2013

[Updated] For the second consecutive day, a young person has been injured after being involved in a collision with a vehicle.

At approximately 8am this morning [Oct 15] emergency services responded to St David’s Main Road by the junction of Bay Estate Road after a school age girl was struck by a vehicle.

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Traffic was backed up as emergency personnel blocked the road as they attended to the situation. It is not clear exactly what transpired, however a car with a damaged windshield could be seen in the area, and the driver appeared to be rather upset.

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The injured girl was taken by ambulance for medical care, accompanied by a family member. It did not appear her injuries were life threatening, however the young girl was obviously in pain, and some of the other school students present appeared to be quite upset by the collision.

We will update with official information as able.

Update 12pm: A police spokesperson said, “Around 8am on Tuesday, October 15th police and first responders attended a reported collision on St. David’s Road in St. George’s near the junction with Bay Estates Road.

“It appears that a car collided with an 8 year old female pedestrian. The injured girl was subsequently taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital via ambulance for treatment; however her injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

“Inquiries into this collision are ongoing and any witnesses are encouraged to contact PC Ian Moe on 293-2222.”

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Category: Accidents and fires, All, News

Comments (50)

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  1. Stop Complaining for 1 Second says:

    Just curious, are children being taught to walk on the correct side of the street?

    I am not laying blame with either the injured child or the driver, but I live in close proximity to a primary school and most mornings, I see school children walking with the traffic and not against the flow of traffic.

    With larger vehicles and the increase of traffic on our roads, we need to ensure that pedestrians young and old, walkers and runners use caution when on the roads.

    • Tommy Chong says:

      What does it matter which side they walk on. You’re asking pedestrians to take caution while there are hundreds of vehicles on our roads that barely fit on on one side weighing over 2 tons going well over the speed limit in. Regardless of whatever side someone walks on if a vehicle is too wide going too fast there’s a risk of being struck. What do you aspect people walking towards traffic to do in these instances jump in the trees or jump over a wall? What ever happened to the three Cs for drivers. Having a licence in Bermuda is not a right its a privilege. Being a pedestrian & having the freedom to travel safely IS a right here.

      • ABM says:

        I thin kthey mean that both the pedestrians and the vehicle drivers should use caution. Which is what is expected of all road users, be they walkers, runners, cyclists, or motorists.

        • Tommy Chong says:

          That could be speculated but what’s typed is, “With larger vehicles and the increase of traffic on our roads, we need to ensure that pedestrians young and old, walkers and runners use caution when on the roads” Which only states pedestrians must use caution & nothing about drivers of, “larger vehicles” doing the same. Maybe you know the authors thought process better than me. I’m just going by what I read but it’s possible the commenter just chose the wrong wording.

        • ganja mon says:

          That area of road in St. Davids is tight for 2 vehicles. That also the area where a rider lost his life earlier this year.

          Hope the young person recovers swiftly. Broken windshield sounds like the driver didn’t get to slow down much.

        • What U Talkn Bout says:

          If you are walking along the street where there isn’t a sidewalk it is much safer for you if you walk against the flow of traffic so you can see everything coming at you giving you a better chance of reacting to a careless driver coming your way. It is a dumb move to walk with trafic and assume that all drivers are paying attention. If you were smart you would do it that way because if a pedestrian comes into contact with a car the pedestrian will be hurt not the car. Everyone besides you must know that. You must be having a bad day for you to say otherwise.

    • whatever says:

      Drivers should also use caution when using the roads.

  2. Grand Wizzard says:

    Three kids struck by vehicles in such a short time period…
    All the years before that, no kids struck.

    Strange and Ironic

    • Tommy Chong says:

      There have been kids struck before. Many of the pedestrian crossings next to bus stops that have crossing lights or speed bumps are because of this. Years before when there was a size limit for vehicles this was more infrequent but since we can all get light trucks & call them cars now it has become more frequent.

      Tourist are discouraged from renting mopeds by cruise directors & travel agents now because of the increased dangers of the roads. Imagine how tourist must feel when trying to take in the scenery on a hike & all of the sudden SWOOOSH! a vehicle barely misses them.

      We have cut our noses off to spite our face.

      I hope the young lady has a speedy recovery & is back in school soon to continue her studies.

  3. San George says:

    Slow down peps!

    • YADON says:

      We can’t go any slower , how bout people stay out of the road . I mean just look at that pic up top . Children standing in the middle of a road , future Darwin Award winners.

      • terry says:

        They in the road because there is no traffic.
        It has been stopped.

      • Tommy Chong says:

        WRONG! You refuse to go slower because you feel its your right to drive but its not its a privilege you have been given that can be taken away. ALL on road vehicles have the capability of doing our speed limit & under if needed. If you were apt enough you would see the street is blocked by EMT helping the VICTIM in the pic & that’s why the students are in the road watching their classmate being put in an Ambulance. You’re deserve the protozoan award.

      • What Next says:

        @YADON, stop trying be a wise guy. The children are standing in the road because clearly all traffic has come to a STOP. Do you really think that they would be standing in the road with traffic whizzing by? You can see the bus in their lane at a complete STOP, so quit with your nasty remarks about future Darwin Award winners.

        How could you be so mean, these are CHILDREN we’re talking about. You should really be ashamed of yourself.

        • Bernews says:

          Terry, Tommy Chong and What Next are all correct, there was no traffic at all on the road at that time as the police were restricting it.

          The kids were waiting for the bus/concerned about the little girl, and they all were very well mannered while we were there.

  4. ggurl says:

    Omgoodness! Bless all involved!

  5. Really?? says:

    Oh Dear! I hope the child is ok! :(

  6. Skeptic says:

    I sure hope everyone will be ok! I walk and cycle on Bermuda’s roads a lot. There is a general lack of regard on the part of many drivers to other users of the roads. They assume that they can squeeze past without slowing, they cut corners, they talk and text on cell phones when driving etc. People need to slow down and take more care.

    • haha says:

      Cycle riders are the worst. Think they own de road. Get the hell over and stop riding in packs…

      • SoTrue says:

        Ya, I second that!!!

      • DeliverUs says:

        WRONG! YOU need to slow down and overtake where safe and appropriate. Maybe you need to take the written D/L test again?

        • Tommy Chong says:

          AMEN TO THAT!

          Overtaking is never a part of our driving test because to overtake you must go over the speed limit. Secondly if you go over the line when going around a corner (as I see many do) you are either speeding or you have a vehicle that’s too big for what your driving capabilities are.

        • ABM says:

          Actually, overtaking in Bermuda is illegal and when u study for the written test it tells you not to overtake.

          • Tommy Chong says:

            Which solidifies Skeptic’s point.

          • hi says:

            Overtaking is not illegal. The single solid white line indicates when your able to pass. Read your book again.

            • Toodle-oo says:

              Wrong .
              On main roads the single white centre line means ‘Parking ok’
              Single yellow centre line means ‘no parking’
              Double yellow centre line means ‘no overtaking’

              Where do people come up with this misinformation ? ?

              • Sooooooo says:

                And a double white line means: “Do not cross the center line” I can gurantee that there will be at least 50 violators on Harbour Road this evening (probably closer to 100)

                But then again half the cars that are licensed to drive on our roads are to big to drive this area without going on the wrong side!!

                • Toodle-oo says:

                  Don’t get me started on Harbour Road.
                  Over 20 years ago a law was passed banning all ‘H’ registered vehicles from using the eastern end. And that was way before we had cars the size of what are now ‘IN’ registered vehicles.
                  The law was obviously never seen or understood (much less never enforced)by a very large number of people. Now we have a few meaningless signs that indicate >6’2′< I've seen them and know what they mean but it appears that the larger the car one owns , or truck drivers , don't have the capacity to understand the vehicle they're driving is way too large for that section of road. Harbour Road has become the go to place for all oversized cars and trucks on the island.

                  I've seen the double yellows on Harbour Road but not double whites. Maybe I should check again .

      • Next says:

        Agreed!

      • Zaloney says:

        so true..they are so irritating..they do whatever they feel like, just because they are on cycles..get the hell over is right..or better yet get the hell off the road altogether. the roads are small enough and you have to many people who cant even ride/drive..go down to the base and train, nobody cares that you have the right to be on the road too. Roads are for vechiles

        • Skeptic says:

          With that attitude, ignorance and lack of respect for other people who all have a right to use the road, we don’t have a hope of being a pleasant place to live, never mind invite visitors to have a holiday!

  7. watch it says:

    Clearly kids need to pay attention too…they just walk right in the road especially in town because they dont care. Stop running thinking you can make it across before the car comes and start using the crosswalks!!!!!

    • Tommy Chong says:

      Kids have been run over on crosswalks in Bermuda.

      Also kids are not the only ones who J walk here. What do you aspect when the traffic congestion is so bad here that you have a line of vehicles on one side of a red light & a line on the other & the lights times are not set properly. Many times crossing a street here is like crossing a freeway in Florida & the only way is to take a chance & run for it. People stop to let drivers out of gates far more here then to let a pedestrian cross even on a cross walk where they are supposed to.

  8. biggz says:

    It doesn’t look to be the case here, but one thing that I noticed that is becoming dangerous is people getting off a bus and walking across the pedestrian line in front of the bus when there is possible traffic about to overtake the bus. I saw this happen twice on a bus ride yesterday where people got off the bus and immediately crossed the street in front of the bus not looking to see if there was oncoming traffic (in one instance there was a van beginning to overtake). Of course as drivers, the onus is on them to be aware of this, but at the same time pedestrians need to be aware as well. Just because I’m walking on the street does not make me less responsible than a driver. What should happen is people get off the bus, wait till it departs and then look to cross the street when traffic stops, but that wont happen. Buses should be equipped with those stop signs (similar to school buses in the US) that stick out to stop traffic in both directions to allow people to cross.

    Again, this wasn’t the case in this tragic situation, but this just came to mind. Prayers go out to the girl and her family as well as the driver. Glad to see it wasn’t fatal (seeing as a boy died at that location). Pedestrians and drivers need to be more careful.

  9. Stop Complaining for 1 Second says:

    @ Tommy Chong

    Not sure if you are Bermudian, but if you are you would know that growing up on an island that has very few sidewalks for pedestrians, it was taught to children at a young age to walk in the lane against the flow of traffic.

    Whilst vehicles have gotten larger over the years and added to that the increase of roads users, CAUTION and Common Sense should be used by ALL.

    If you walk where you can see the traffic coming towards you, you stand a better chance of being seen and able to move over should you need be. In most instances you are able to make eye contact with driver/ rider and or vehicle approaching.

    Think for a moment if you have your back to the traffic.

    So I wasn’t being funny, just writing what I was taught many years ago, and have passed to my children who walk as well.

    • Tommy Chong says:

      Yes I’m Bermudian & yes I was taught to walk against the flow of traffic but this is a practice & not an exact rule since there are many, many blind corners in Bermuda where its a lot safer to switch to the other side than take chances the vehicle is going slow enough to see you as they approach the end of the bend. This is a subject that’s very touchy with me since I enjoy going on walks with my family & despite us using the side with oncoming traffic whenever possible there are too many times I’ve had to pull my children into the trees or a side entrance to avoid getting run over by a speeding vehicle. Many drivers of large vehicles here do not know how to drive them & don’t know how to judge the distance from the curb to the left side. I’ve reported these instances of reckless driving to the police & even given plate numbers just to see the same people driving in the same manner which only leads me to believe the police didn’t follow up as they said they would. I remember my childhood here & remember being able to walk our roads without having these type of close calls which only proves the changes of laws & attitude towards existing laws have affected the safety of our roads. This is not only my opinion but the opinion stated by doctor Froncioni who has stated his first hand findings on numerous occasions & has made suggestions to fix the problem to no avail.

      • S.D. says:

        Tommy, I agree with you 100%. It was for this very reason I stopped my evening walks with my little one in her stroller. These idiots can see you pushing a baby, but do you think they would even ease up on the gas just a little bit? Nope, they would zoom right across me, leaving me to push the pram as far over as I could. These incidents used to leave me literally trembling with fear, and I resorted to taking her to the Botanical Gardens instead.

        Some people are so selfish and have absolutely no respect for other road users- it is all about them.

  10. Stop Complaining for 1 Second says:

    @ Tommy Chong

    Yu do NOT have to be speeding to overtake.

    If you are doing 20 and I do 21 I will eventually overtake you.

    Also on one of your other posts, jaywalking is NOT illegal in Bermuda.

    The problem is the way the Corporation has the lights at junctions set.

    Street lights used to go Red, yellow green and vice versa.
    Now most lights go from Red to green.

    The yellow or amber light, means CAUTION

    • Tommy Chong says:

      I’m guessing you mean 20 kmh not 20 mph as going over the later is considered speeding. I’ve not seen manny instances where someone is going as slow as 20 kmh accept in thick traffic but in those cases of the sunday driver I agree overtaking them would not be speeding.

      In my other post I didn’t state j walking is illegal her I just used to term to explain what pedestrians have to do in the midst of heavy traffic to cross.

      I do agree with you on the lights issue as I’ve seen many close calls because someone is trying to turn on a busy intersection like cedar avenue & dundonald because the light goes green for both sides of cedar avenue at the same time when they should rotate allowing traffic to turn without competing with oncoming vehicles.

  11. blessed says:

    Children will be children. We need to teach them to LOOK BOTH WAYS and then look again. And at a cross walk even when the lights are flashing bikes will overtake cars and not even slow down. We need to teach our kids to look both ways then once they walk past the first car to look again to make sure no bikes are overtaking.
    We must be defensive walking our roads. They can be very narrow and the drivers could take their eyes off the road for a second to change the radio or to look at a text message or email.

    • S.D. says:

      I always taught my children just WHERE to cross as well. I can’t tell you how many times I have come around a blind corner to see a child crossing right in front of me. I always taught them to walk to a more center part of the road where a driver should have clearer visibility of the whole stretch of road.

  12. 1minute says:

    That section of road is dangerous and has been a problem for years. They need to widen the road and add sidewalks.

  13. LP says:

    Everyday I drive up Woodlands Road when the Berkeley students are coming out and they have absolutely no road sense. They walk on both sides of the road, 2 or 3 abreast, totally regardless of traffic driving both ways – I always (have to) slow down so I do not hit anyone, but I am amazed at the amount of drivers who do not.

    Really, ALL road users need to use common sense. The roads are wide enough – just slow down, look ahead and remember how different the traffic is at various times of the day.

  14. Nuffin but da Truth says:

    90% of Bermudian Drivers with a license would NEVER pass the Bermuda test again and almost all would NEVER pass a test in the UK ,Europe or USA.

  15. Armchair critic... says:

    Some of these comments boggle my mind. So many of you seem to act like some sort of authority on all matters which you know little to nothing about. You speculate, jump to conclusions and have all the answers. If only you could run the world right?

    Please, give this kid and her family a break and stop being such armchair, or should it be “keyboard”, critics!! Drives me crazy!! Hope the child is ok and the driver of the car is ok too… thoughts are with you both.

  16. Family member says:

    To all those who have expressed concern for the 9 year old child. She is resting comfortably. I know that it is typical of us Bermudians to speculate and I do understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion but out of respect for both families involved in this unfortunate accident, please try to be tactful in voicing your opinion. These forums tend to cause undo stress and pain on all involved and I would like to think that we are not that insensitive and intentionally disregard other’s feelings.

  17. More WaysTo Learn Than One says:

    It wold be great to have the road Safety Rules & Tips infomercials & even posters around the island & visits to schools start back up again on local channels of TV & Radio, reminding all on the rules of the road…this was done a lot when I was a child. i,e. rights of pedestrians, warnings to, pedestrians (such as the basic STOP LOOK & LISTEN) before crossing streets – INCLUDING at (non-traffic light) crosswalks, vehicles slowing down nearing cross walks, people walking against traffic flow, use of indicators including at roundabouts and yes – giving way to the RIGHT at roundabouts…may this child and the others all be recovering in good health and may the drivers involved be remorseful and continue on (more) cautiously, as perhaps some of the drivers may have been driving cautiously.