Man sentenced for wrongful death in traffic

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten (8 February 2023) – The Court of First Instance sentenced a man on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, for the act of wrongful death in a traffic situation. The death resulted from a vehicle accident on Welfare Road, Cole Bay, on 31 July 2022.

T.A.B. (67) was sentenced by the Court to 200 community service hours, the suspension of his driver’s license for 12 months (six of those months are conditional), and probation of two years. He is to also pay the victim’s family for funeral costs amounting to US $8,003.

On the evening of July 31, 2022, the now deceased J.R.C. (65) was crossing Welfare Road as a pedestrian, in the vicinity of Tropicana Casino, when he was hit by a Wrangler Jeep driven by T.A.B. The victim suffered severe injuries and died that same evening.

According to the Court, T.A.B. was not driving carefully enough to prevent the accident from happening. T.A.B. is held responsible for the accident because his car headlights were off while it was already dark. This made his car less visible and reduced his visibility as a driver. Furthermore, the traffic situation in this spot is very busy at that time of day, as it was on the day of the incident.