Two survive 30-ft highway plunge
IT could have been a miracle or just luck. But whatever it was, the two men travelling in a Toyota Corolla that careened off the toll road and plunged about 30 feet onto the Mandela Highway have a lot to be thankful for.
For although they were taken to the Spanish Town Hospital, they only received minor injuries in the plunge. According to an officer from the Central Village Police Station, the injuries the men received were not life-threatening.
Luckily, the car landed on its wheels.
The accident happened at about 2:30 pm when the 2002 light blue Toyota Corolla slammed a guard rail on the soft shoulder of the highway, just before reaching the fly-over linking the toll road to Mandela Highway.
It was not clear what caused the accident. However, the mangled guard rail gave clear indication of the speed at which the car was travelling. The accident caused a lengthy backlog of traffic along the Mandela Highway as several people stopped to get a glimpse of the wrecked Corolla.
But moments after that accident, a man at the scene was seriously injured when a trailer passed under the fly-over and hit a metal light pole, which had been knocked down on the fly-over during the previous accident. The metal pole in turn hit the legs of the man – a Highway 2000 worker – who was surveying the damage atop the bridge and caused him to fall some 25 feet to the ground.
The worker, whose identity was not released by the police, appeared to sustain a broken leg, a broken left arm, and large gash on the same arm.