There was a collision between an oil tanker and a delivery truck this morning. It happened at around 11 am at mile 27 and a half on the Northern Highway in the village of Biscayne where both vehicles were heading north. No one died but a Bowen and Bowen employee was rushed to the hospital. 7News was on the scene.
Keith Swift Reporting,
The accident involved this toppled and now totalled Bowen and Bowen delivery truck which was loaded with Crystal water and fruit juices and this tanker which was also loaded – but with oil. Less than 5 minutes before the collision, the Bowen and Bowen truck delivered water to Pearlitta Wade at mile 27.
Pearletta Wade, Witness
“The truck had come deliver water and it was out there a little while and we heard a bang and from then we gone outside and when we looked we saw it was the accident out there.”
Keith Swift,
“When you heard the bang what did you think it was?”
Pearletta Wade,
“Well I thought it was an ordinary tire blow-out.”
But she was wrong. While attempting to overtake the Crystal delivery truck, the tanker crashed into the rear of the delivery truck. The front of the tanker
truck was crushed and it skidded off the road and into bushes. The driver who declined to comment was lucky. But the driver of the delivery truck and his sideman weren’t so lucky. He lost control of the delivery truck, swerved off the road, and down this hill where the truck then flipped and landed on its side in a pool of water – spilling its entire load of Crystal water in bottles and plastics – as well as Crystal fruit juices. The pool of water it landed in is in Emma Cadle’s front yard.
Emma Cadle, Witness
“I saw the truck there and by this time the driver came out of the truck, how he got out I don’t know, and he I heard someone inside the truck in the water crying to please help me. So by that time a vehicle had stopped out there already and two guys came out and so I said to one of them somebody is inside that truck in the water and to please help. They hesitated like they didn’t want to go into the water and so I took my boots and I told him to go into the water and help the person. He complained of pain in his stomach, he didn’t have any wound open right but he complained of pain in his stomach and he couldn’t walk.”
The entire ordeal left Emma Cadle shaking.
Emma Cadle,
“I thought that if that truck had went off the road like up that way, it would have ended up right here at my step which is frightening. But I could say thank God that nobody died. I would feel bad if somebody died right in front of my house.”
Before we left the scene, Bowen and Bowen employees had already begun the cleanup - removing all those crushed bottles of water and fruit juices from Emma Cadle’s front yard.
The driver of the oil tanker from Spanish Lookout is Orlando Wolfe. He has been served with a notice of intended prosecution. The driver of the Crystal delivery truck was Barrington Burton and his sideman was Solomon Baizar. Both were treated for these injuries and released from the hospital.
