RCIPS denies police chase at time of fatal crash

(CNS): A 27-year-old man has died and a 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving following a single-vehicle crash early Sunday morning. Despite social media posts claiming that the police were chasing the car when it crashed, the RCIPS has stated that this is incorrect, and that while they were looking for the car, they were not following it at the time.

According to an RCIPS release Monday afternoon, just after 12:20 on Sunday morning, 1 September, police officers on Bodden Town Road, east of the Bodden Town Police Station, saw a dark coloured vehicle speeding past them heading in the direction of George Town, driving in a reckless manner.

Police said the officers turned on the flashing lights and followed the car, which they saw turning onto Anton Bodden Drive, overtaking three other vehicles ahead of it. Then, in the vicinity of Belford Estates, the driver lost control of the car and collided into the last of the three vehicles that it was overtaking.

Officers soon arrived at the scene of the collision and came alongside the driver of the car, who had managed to regain control of the vehicle. They instructed him to stop, but he ignored them and sped off along Anton Bodden Drive, heading towards Condor Road. The RCIPS said that the officers briefly followed the car in an effort to get its licence plate number, but soon lost sight of it while still on Anton Bodden Road.

When they got to the junction of Shamrock Road and Condor Road, the officers were stopped and spoken to by a member of the public, who told them that they had seen a car speeding and heading in the direction of George Town. 

The officers travelled along Shamrock Road in an effort to locate the car, checking side roads from the main road along the way. When they were in the vicinity of Northward Road, another member of the public stopped the police vehicle and told the officers that there had been a collision in the vicinity of Doubloon Drive. 

The officers arrived on the scene and saw that the same car that had been involved in the earlier crash on Anton Bodden Drive had collided with a wall near Doubloon Drive.

Two men were inside the vehicle and one of them, the passenger, appeared to have been severely injured. An ambulance was called immediately and first-aid was given to both men at the scene until the arrival of EMS. The driver and the passenger, who was in critical condition, were both transported to the hospital by ambulance.

The police said that at about 6:15 Monday morning, they were informed that the man who had been in critical condition had succumbed to his injuries, though they did not say what time he had been pronounced dead.

The driver has since been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and other traffic-related offences. He remains in custody pending further police investigation. Both he and the deceased man are from George Town.