Accident survivors relive horrific incident

While this country continues to mourn the lives lost in the motor vehicle accident at Rock Gutter, Owia yesterday, 12-year-old Terrill Thomas is lucky to be alive to tell the tale of what actually happened.

When SEARCHLIGHT visited the Fancy resident at the Accident and Emergency Unit at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), the expression on his face spoke of the horror he had experienced {{more}}earlier that day.

“When we were coming from home, the van was coming down good and after it came down the hill, is like the brakes cut away and the van picked up more speed. It come down with full speed,” Terill slowly recounted.

Terril stated that the driver attempted to drive the van into a wall, but was unsuccessful.

“The van go down in a hole and it spin over some big stones in the sea.

The van was there rolling, rolling, going down and it stick up in the stones,” he added.

Terrill also recalled hearing loud screams from other passengers in the vehicle who were trying to get out. He said he was “squeezed up” underneath and began calling for help.

“After I didn’t hear anybody, I tried to get up myself,” he said, while pausing to catch his breath as he spoke.

The youngster, who had multiple lacerations on his left hand and an abrasion to the left side of his face, also suffered multiple injuries to his legs.

The first form student of the North Union Secondary School added that the seat of the van cut his leg and the weight of the vehicle squeezed his head on a stone.

He said he kicked out the seat of the van, which was squeezing his foot and preventing him from moving.

“If I didn’t get away from there, the water would have carried me on the stones and butt up me head,” Terril further recalled.

“I was really frighten when the van was rolling. And when my foot squeeze me, I was frighten because the water was covering my face.”

The brave youngster said he then made his way out of the van and stayed afloat by using his backpack as a flotation device.

“I was just there floating. I didn’t think I was going to die or anything, because I knew I could swim go back round Fancy. After that, some people in a boat come and pick me up.”

When we spoke with Terrill, he was awaiting his turn to have an x-ray done.

Just a few beds away from Terrill, lay conductor of the van, Pastor Ehud Myers, 66 of Fancy, who complained of chest pain.

Myers, who told SEARCHLIGHT that he could not speak much because of the pain, indicated that he was fished out of the water by a nurse at the scene.

Myers is said to have suffered injuries to his back, legs and neck, which had to be placed in a brace.

His niece, Kayon Keir, a teacher at the Stubbs Government School, who was at his bedside when we visited, said her uncle had earlier indicated to them that before the nurse rescued him, he had given up hope.

“He said the waves hit so hard against the vehicle that it broke it and that was what helped him to come out,” Keir said.

The bus is owned by the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Fancy, of which Myers is a member.

Keir, a resident of Biabou, said she was at school when she received the dreadful news about what had happened.

“I got the call to say that my uncle was in an accident and that they couldn’t find him or the driver. I left school immediately and went out there,” Keir said.

“I thank God that he is alive. I give him all praises for that.”

Up to press time, 10 persons were still warded at the MCMH and four more at the Georgetown Hospital being treated for injuries.(KW)