Courtesy: The Daily Herald


Man dies in pickup crash

COLE BAY--A man died in a Cole Bay crash early Sunday after he smashed his Chevrolet pickup into a concrete wall along Union Road. Authorities say the Dominican man died instantly.

Dead is Sylvester Cuthbert Hazel, a futsal player for Long Acres team.

Hazel was heading towards Marigot about 7:00am when he lost control of the vehicle near Union Road Shopping Plaza.

Police said the vehicle had driven off the road and into a pile of rocks on the right, which sent it skyward before it landed on its side. “He went through hell for 30 metres,” said police spokesman Chief Inspector Johan “Janchi” Leonard, explaining that the pickup had kept going before it hit the wall. “For a yet unknown reason, he was probably driving at high speed.”

The vehicle slid on its side and then ploughed straight through a wall, landing in a resident’s garden.

Hazel died of head injuries in the third reported traffic accident this weekend. He is the second person to die in traffic in Dutch St. Maarten this year.

Windward Islands Chief Prosecutor Taco Stein, who was on the crash scene, said there would be no autopsy, because the cause of death seemed clear. He said the police Traffic Department still needed to investigate to determine how the accident had happened.

Hazel’s team was scheduled to play a game later in the day, but this was cancelled to honour his passing. Players in a futsal game Sunday between Risc Takers and Dewa Boys, along with the local futsal community, offered a minute of silence for Hazel at the beginning of their match.

Only one other person, a biker, died in a crash this year, the Traffic Department reports. Three persons have died in French St. Martin.

Other crashes between early Saturday and late Sunday included a car crashing into concrete columns on the roadside in Simpson Bay and six cars being damaged due to slick roads and bad weather on Link One, Phase Two in Cay Hill.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com