This series gives in greater detail some of the verdicts delivered by Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris following hearings into unnatural deaths across the island. This is an edited version of the verdict in the case of three-year-old Kobi Straughan.
KOBI STRAUGHAN, aged three years, died on December 10, 2004, as a result of a vehicular collision on Blackman’s Main Road, St Joseph.
He was travelling in the back seat of a motor car, registration number 0 314, driven by his mother, Eve Straughan, who recalls little of the events of that night. She only remembers that her cousin, Maylene Gale, called her about 7 p.m. asking for a lift home from her workplace at Turtle Beach Resort, Christ Church.
Gale, an asthmatic, told the court that she had gone to work for her usual shift but at about 6:30 p.m. she began to feel ill and decided to call Eve Straughan who lives at Joes River, St Joseph,to come and collect her and transport her to Gale’s home at St Elizabeth’s Village, St Joseph.
Straughan also recalled that she left home immediately thereafter taking with her Kayla, her daughter, and Kobi, her son. They were seated in the back seat but not in special baby seats. According to Straughan, they were strapped in with seat belts.
Fell asleep
When Straughan reached Turtle Beach, Gale recounted that she got into the front passenger seat and the children were in the back seat. After she got into the car, she promptly fell asleep. Her next recollection was being rudely awakened by a crashing sound and a stinging sensation in her face. Straughan asked Gale if she was alright. The airbag had been released and Gale struggled to extricate herself from the car.
As she stood outside the car, Gale said she could hear Kayla crying and Straughan, who was still trapped in the car, asked Gale to wake Kobi as he appeared to be still asleep. Gale tried to rouse him, to no avail.
At this time, Gale began to experience severe pains across her shoulders, chest and abdomen. She nearly fainted, she said, and she felt someone supporting her to prevent her from falling over. She was taken to another car to sit down.
That same day, Stafford Mascoll was driving his motor car, registration number MV 664, along Blackman’s Main Road, St Joseph, at about 9:20 p.m. When he reached Grantley Adams Memorial School, he saw from the beam of his headlamps that there was a car parked across the road towards the right hand side. He pulled his car over and saw a motor car, registration number 0 314, with its front off the road and facing the embankment and its rear end across the road and blocking the left lane going towards Bridgetown.
He noted the car horn was blasting and the airbags had been deployed, while the female driver was pulling at the door handle trying to get out of the car.
Mascoll tried to help her but the car door would not open from the outside. He pulled on the rear door but that did not open either.
He then noticed that the female passenger was trying to get out so he went around to the other side and helped her to get out of the vehicle. He also assisted her in opening the rear left door. She began to fall as if fainting and he told her to sit down.
Mascoll went back to the back seat of 0314 and found a little boy sitting on the floor between the two front seats with his head resting on the driver’s seat. The little girl was lying on the back seat and was crying.
Mascoll said the female driver knelt on the driver’s seat and helped to lift up the little boy. He was placed on the backseat beside the little girl. Mascoll checked the boy for vital signs and at this stage found a heartbeat.
Weakened state
Another car then arrived, which stopped to render assistance. Mascoll recounted that the female passenger who was in a very weakened state was placed to sit in this other car while the female driver (Eve Straughan) pulled up the little boy and tried to rouse him, but he did not respond.
Robert Lewis, cousin of Maylene Gale, happened to be driving along the said road when he noticed 0 314 parked across the road.
He saw that his cousin Gale was struggling to get out of the said car.
He stopped and assisted Gale who complained of severe pains and placed her to sit in his car while he assisted with the other occupants of the vehicle. He saw Eve Straughan with the little boy in her arms. Robert switched off the engine of 0 314 as the horn was still blasting.
Lewis noticed that the little boy’s chest was rising and falling rapidly and upon checking found he had a very rapid heartbeat.
Taken to QEH
He was not responding to Straughan’s attempts to rouse him. Eventually the police and several ambulances arrived and took the occupants of the car away to Accident and Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where Kobi Straughan was pronounced dead on arrival.
Lewis pointed out that the bonnet, grill, windscreen and dashboard of 0 314 were damaged.
He also noted that there was a well partially hidden by bush about two and a half feet above the ground.
Damage to the well indicated that the car had collided with it.
Police witnesses said that the front of 0 314 was actually touching the well. They also confirmed that the bonnet, radiator, both front fenders, front bumper and windscreen were all damaged while both head lamps were broken.
Mascoll, the only driver at the scene just before the collision and who was driving some distance behind 0 314, said he encountered no other vehicles on the road before he saw 0 314 parked across the road, which was dry and of good repair.
He considered the well to be about five feet above ground (which accorded with the measurements of the police) and it was covered with shrubs. Mascoll, who lived in the area, said he did not even know that there was a well there until that night.
Straughan recalls little of this and could not tell the court how the collision occurred or how the vehicle happened to be across the road on the opposite side from which she was travelling at that juncture.
Lost control
It can only be speculated that she lost control of the vehicle by hitting the embankment and skidding across the road or she fell asleep at the wheel and drove across the road and only came to a stop when the car hit the wall casing of the well on the opposite side. We will never know which, in any event, there is no evidence of any other vehicle causing 0 314 to veer off its path.
Verdict – Accidental Death in Vehicular Collision.
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