Badly injured passenger sues cops over fatal crash
(CNS): Paris Gabriella Ebanks (26), a passenger in the back of a car involved in a deadly crash during a police chase in January 2021, is suing the RCIPS over the life-threatening injuries and pain she has suffered. Ebanks claims that the high-speed, early morning chase in West Bay caused the crash in which Shayne Anthony Ewart was killed, and both she and the driver were badly injured.
Tarrick Crawford (29) was behind the wheel of the 2003 Honda Accord when it smashed into a wall, and he has since been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and inflicting grievous bodily harm over the collision. However, Crawford, who suffers from mental health issues, has not been arraigned because the case has been delayed on numerous occasions due to challenges regarding a fitness-to-plea report.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Ebanks stated that because of the chase, both Crawford and the police reached double the speed limit on that road and Crawford lost control of the Honda as a result. As he attempted to navigate a bend, he collided at high speed into a concrete wall, killing Ewart and causing a catalogue of severe injuries to Ebanks.
According to the documents, the chase started when Crawford was stopped at a checkpoint in the early morning hours of 16 January 2021 on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway. As PC Wilston Bennett approached the Honda, Crawford drove off, which led him to get into a police patrol vehicle and drive after him. As Crawford accelerated, PC Bennett continued the pursuit at high speed until they were both travelling in excess of 80mph.
The lawsuit claims that the RCIPS is vicariously liable for the actions of PC Bennett, who was acting in the course of his employment. Ebanks lists 15 reasons why Bennett, and by extension his employer, is liable for the crash, including what she claims was an unnecessary, disproportionate and unsafe pursuit, as well as driving above the speed limit without authorisation and failing to adhere to the RCIPS pursuit policy.
She also said that the officer failed to take into account the wet weather conditions, resulting in increased risks of a pursuit and a reckless disregard for the safety of others.
According to the RCIPS press office at the time, the pursuit had ended before the crash happened. A press release issued on 16 January 2021 said that the officers had activated the blue lights and sirens on the patrol car and followed the Honda “at a safe distance”, adding that “they soon lost sight of the vehicle and the decision was made to return to the checkpoint”.
Following the collision, Ebanks was in the Intensive Care Unit for a month and was bed-bound for three months. She continues to suffer as a result of multiple very serious injuries, including a fractured and shattered femur requiring surgery, a fractured tailbone, a shattered pelvis, a punctured lung and liver damage.
Ebanks said in the legal documents that she continues to suffer from lower back pain, swollen ankles, shoulder, neck and knee, severe headaches, insomnia and brain fog, anxiety and flashbacks, as well as personality changes, post-traumatic stress disorder and grief and bereavement arising from the death of Ewart.
Ebanks, who is represented by Broadhurst Attorneys, is seeking general and special damages plus expenses that she has incurred and continues to incur as a result of the collision and her injuries.
Search for the suit on the judicial administration’s website here, cause G0089/2023
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Category: Local News
So why she don’t sue the driver? As he was the one driving and had a choice to stop and didn’t do so. The police was only doing their job.
From a public policy ground this has to lose. If this claim succeeds then we have the position that every drunk, criminal or moron can drive off from police checkpoints at high speed knowing the police will be constrained in following them.
Let’s not forget that not too long ago a vehicle that refused to stop actually hit a police officer and drove off.
Based on that kind of background, the officer would be justified in pursuing the idiot who drove off.
Sickening. Joint enterprise? If anything she should be sued for the full cost of her medical care by whoever paid it because sure as hell she didn’t.
Watching too many YouTube stories! Want easy money!
problem is govt/society/the rich keeps it’s lawsuits down by making illegal for lawyers to accept..no win/no pay cases…and they know average joe dont have funds..so lawyers get paid even if they lose or take on cases which they dont care if they lose…be carful ppl…
Just a hunch, but I suspect she is suing police instead of the driver because the car was not insured, hence no payout possible from the insurance company.
Bingo!
Absolutely no doubt!!
car insurance has nothing to do with a law suit
My car insurance coverage says “Per Person Third Party Bodily Injury” $1,000,000.
That’s what my insurance policy says. You can search the pockets of every pants that I own now, and will ever own for the next 25 years, and you’re never going to find that amount of money.
say it again, loud and clear.
Oh please. So now the cops must let criminals get away? No, she played stupid games and won a lifetime of endless health issues.
Can we show a little bit of compassion?
Where it’s deserved, sure.
I would expect compassion be expressed for the police officer who risked his life to apprehend the reckless driver.
Huh? You mean for the police unjustly accused?
The police had probable cause and are required to use reasonable force and means, including matching the speed of the fleeing vehicle she was riding in to make arrests and search the vehicle. Pick your friends carefully.
You made a bad choice and want us to pay you? No sir.
She needs to go sit down! Ask your friend why he didn’t stop.
I’m confident she knows exactly why.
Has she shared that information with the police do you think?
People want police chases, then they don’t want police chases, then they do when it’s something personal to them.
Was it ever established why the idiot driver chose to drive away? in any case, I’ve not been in any car accidents involving police cars because my friends aren’t morons.
I hope this case is dismissed as being without merit. If this happened in the USA they’d be lucky anyone came out alive. Thank the lord that you’re still alive.
We should want there to be more than one police officer on shift, so there isn’t any chasing. We spent $5mln on fancy police radios to deliver tools to tactically corner fleeing suspects by calling ahead to other squad cars. Ofc it doesn’t work if there’s only one law enforcement vehicle on shift in the district, or in some cases, the entire island. Fix that!
There’s always multiple units to respond across the island. I guarantee there hasn’t been a case where there is just one single unit. In districts, yes, island wide, nope. There’s also the FRU that are available in theory 24/7.
What is wrong is a single officer forming a roadblock. All kinds of safety issues for them, not to mention the lack of effectiveness without a second vehicle.
and during a police stop checkpoint most officers are at the checkpoint
Was she aware of the drivers mental health issues when she voluntarily got into the vehicle? If yes, she along with the driver bears full responsibility for the outcome of that fateful decision.
I know Bennett and he’s a really good person. I’d not swap one Bennett for 100 of any of the occupants of that car.
If that officer did not go after the car then people would complain that Police don’t do anything and let the bad guy just drive off.
But when they do go after the car and the lunatic criminal driver crashes, the Police get sued?
Police damned if they do and damned if they don’t. People will make a fuss either way.
She get in a car driven by Tarrick Crawford, a man who already kill another man before when he driving and has no business driving any car any time any where, and she get hurt when he flea from Babylon because he not suppose to be driving in the first place?
Girl that wha’ you get.
Sue Tarrick. Or sue your own self for stupidity.
Police not perfect but Im with them on this one.
I hope the girl lose her case because its utter foolishness.
I agree police officer could have disengaged when it became a high speed chase, possibly endangering other motorists but she needs to sue the driver first.
Why didn’t she tell her friend, the driver, to stop and not evade the police?
Why didn’t she tell the driver to let her out because she wanted no part of this high speed chase from the police?
She figures the Government have deeper pockets than the driver but if she is successful, all sorts of disrespectful delibquents (yes that is what they are) will know they just have to drive off at high rates of speed and they will get away because police are not going to engage.
Am not sorry about her injuries. Those injuries are a direct consequence of her poor choices. Show me your friends and I know who you are.
She is probably a disrespectful delinquent like her friend, the driver.
Play stupid games with stupid people then you win stupid/harmful prizes.
I stand with the police.
These young people want to play bad but don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.
How very Christian of you.
Regardless of the circumstances, she was a passenger in the vehicle. It’s gone to the courts where it will be heard by someone competent, regardless of the direction it goes, this is her right. The blather you’ve spilled here makes it obvious you’re no threat to a fair hearing, so we’ll see how it goes. Interesting nonetheless.
What does a person’s Christianity have to do with this? One can be compassionate but not stupid.
It is her right to sue the police just it is my right to say that is a stupid choice.
Being a Christian makes you turn a blind eye to stupidity?
Maybe she did ask him to let her out or slow down ? Were you there ?
if you lie down with dogs you will catch fleas.
This will be an interesting case. Whether the police procedures are considered adequate and an adequate defence when something happens. Hopefully they are. (From the news reports so far it sounds so, i.e., stopped the active pursuit when it got too dangerous, as borne out by the subsequent accident.)
She should sue the one that didn’t stop for the police and chose to speed away instead.
crazy
Certainly wasn’t the police fault that the dimwit didn’t stop. The police should sue for endangering his life for having to chase him down.