Charles Nathaniel Jordan, 58, of Well Gap, Cave Hill, St Michael, died in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on November 2, 1996 after being run over by a car in front of the Treasury Building, Wharf Road, Bridgetown.
His partner of 32 years, Monica Scantlebury, said he left for work around 6:40 a.m. on November 1, and she did not see or hear anything of him until the next day when police informed her he had been in a collision.
She knew he used to drink, but not to excess. In fact, as far as she knew, he had given up strong spirits five years previously and now stuck to beer. However, she did say that he would often go drinking with friends after work but she had never known him to stay away from home all night or come home really drunk.
When he left home that morning, he was to all intents and purposes in good physical health with no known ailments or chronic illnesses.
That same day, around 10:25 p.m., Peggy King collected her daughter and a friend from St Winifred’s School where they had just finished rehearsals for an upcoming pantomime. She took them into The City to see the Independence lighted decorations.
Just as she rounded a corner by the Treasury Building, she came across a man staggering and weaving his way unsteadily, apparently attempting to [cross] the road.
Tyrone Boyce, a taxi driver, was sitting on a wall in front of the Treasury Building about 10:30 p.m.
A light rain had fallen, so the road was slippery and the area was fairly well lit, given the seasonal additional lighting.
Boyce saw a man stumbling along coming from the direction of Marhill Street and apparently intending to cross the Bridge Road. But he was moving in such an erratic fashion in that he was often falling into the pathway of oncoming traffic and getting dangerously close to the middle of the road that Boyce sensed that he was intoxicated and sought to admonish him.
As he passed immediately in front of him, Boyce asked him why he did not move out of the road before something knocked him down. Whereupon the man, of very unsteady gait, immediately fell down in the road.
Prince Moore, another independent witness, was also sitting on a wall adjacent the Treasury Building facing the Careenage chatting with a relative. Light traffic was flowing steadily from Bridge Road and Charles Duncan O’Neale Bridge going towards Wharf Road. Moore also observed the same man staggering near the middle of the road and that the traffic was swerving off of him to the left and right in order to avoid hitting him.
He appeared to be drunk.
The condition and disposition of this man was also confirmed by Tyrone Holford, another taxi driver, also located at Trafalgar Square and sitting on a wall close by the fountain. Holford recalled that one of the taxi drivers sitting around there called to him asking him to get out of the road.
This was the scene that met King just as she rounded the corner by the Treasury Building. She heard the people around shouting at him to get out of the road. She saw the staggering pedestrian that she needed to avoid, but as corroborated by Prince Moore, there were other vehicles swerving left and right to avoid the man and this left her with no place to go.
She therefore said to her passengers: “I am going to stop right here until I see where this man is going.” And so, she came to a dead stop. This was not difficult as she had been driving very slowly at about 10 mph to 20 mph.
This was also confirmed by Prince Moore who saw when King’s car approached and then came to a standstill.
He and the taxi drivers saw when the man fell to the ground about four to five feet in front of King’s car, which was then about 30 feet from the corner.
Vernold Lowe, a bus driver with Transport Board, had taken his bus BM365 to Weymouth headquarters to collect diesel. He left there about 10:20 p.m.
The bus was empty as he was now taking it back to the Jubilee terminal at Lower Broad Street from where he was due to collect his passengers for the 10:30 p.m. journey – Bridgetown to Pie Corner.
It would seem to the Court that he was cutting it a bit close and [that] would doubtless account partially for what happened next.
According to King and other eyewitnesses, ten to 15 seconds after the man had fallen in the road and King had stopped her car in front of him, they heard and/or saw a bus coming around the corner.
As Lowe came around the corner, he [said] at a moderate to slow speed, he came upon King’s car which apparently had stopped suddenly in the middle of the road.
His speed is disputed by onlookers who said that he was travelling about 45 mph. In any event, as it was around the corner, he was unable to see what had caused the car in front of him to stop without warning and so he was himself unable to stop.
He braked as sharply as he could but aided and abetted by the slippery road he crashed into the back of King’s car, pushing it forward another ten feet [or] so on top of the body of the fallen man.
Moore said he immediately got up from the wall and approached the scene. The man’s body was now completely under the car.
From among the crowd which gathered, comprising many taxi drivers, some lifted the car up off the man’s body and moved him away to safety. Moore said he went close to him and could smell the strong alcoholic fumes. Moore had noted earlier, prior to the incident, that the front of his shirt had been heavily stained and this also reeked of alcohol.
These strong fumes of alcohol were also confirmed by one of the paramedics, Paul Payne, who accompanied the ambulance to the scene. Payne and the other paramedic, Donald Forde, found the man still alive but obviously seriously injured.
He gave his name as Charles Jordan. He complained of pains in his chest, back and right arm and was experiencing difficulty in breathing.
They applied a collar and noted that his arm appeared to be broken, to which they applied a splint. On the way to the QEH, Jordan was given oxygen and then handed over to medical staff at [the] Accident & Emergency department. A few hours later, in the early hours of November 2, he died there.
The evidence is quite clear that Jordan staggered in an inebriated state into the middle of the road and into the path of oncoming traffic, where he fell. Even so, he was still not yet in danger of losing his life because King came to a complete stop a few feet away from him without touching him.
Sadly, however, the bus driven by Lowe came around the corner, crashed into the rear of King’s car and pushed it forward and over the man lying in the road in front of her car.
This clearly is a case of misadventure, but it must be added that it was exacerbated by the speed of the bus which was surely going too fast for:
(a) A slippery road
(b) A City centre and
(c) Around a blind corner.
The fast speed of the bus cannot be disputed since witnesses said it slammed into the car with great force causing the roof to buckle and the car to be written off.
Verdict – Misadventure
