Jogger breaks both legs and an arm in Pembroke road accident

A man who was knocked unconscious while jogging on the Pembroke main road and later woke up to find that both his legs and one of his arms were broken is calling on both motorists and road users to be more careful.

Tyrell Hannaway, a sales representative from Layou who works with Eastern Caribbean Bottlers Inc. was attempting to cross the street in the vicinity of the Taiwanese Agricultural Mission in Pembroke on Sunday, April 2 when he was struck by a motor vehicle.

By way of advice to persons who use the roads, Hannaway said, “Wear clothing that has high visibility and as much as possible…if you can avoid being on the main road per se, try your best and utilize the furthest points off the road.”

Speaking from his bed at the Male Surgical Ward of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), Hannaway told SEARCHLIGHT that on the day of the accident, he woke up around 5.15 a.m. but went back to bed as there was a drizzle rain.

He said he would usually use the stretch of road between Layou and Rilland Hill for exercise purposes and on that day, he started late because of the rain. He thinks the late start may have saved his life.

“I prefer to be on the road by 5:00 a.m…but I got up about 5:45 after the rain subsided,” Hannaway explained.

He said when he got to the Buccament Bay Polyclinic, he asked a friend why the traffic was so heavy on the road that early and was told that persons were returning from a Soca show in Arnos Vale.

He said when he got to Rillan Hill he turned around for the trek back home but never made it.

“When I reach in the vicinity of Ace in Pembroke it started to drizzle so I decided to walk across where the Taiwanese mission is at Pembroke to try to shade the rain and I could recall vividly when I turn to go across there wasn’t any traffic on either side of the road coming or going,” he Hannaway recounted.

“Normally I would occupy the safest side which is the side to Greaves and Ace in those areas.” Hannaway said that he wanted to get some shelter from the rain so decided to cross in the area of the Taiwanese Mission but was knocked down.

“I don’t know what transpired but then I heard what sound like a very good friend of mine calling me, like somebody is saying ‘Tyrell Tyrell’ and I said ‘what?’ and he said to me ‘you know you got knock down?’ and I said ‘where?’ and he said ‘Pembroke’.

“Whilst there I wasn’t feeling any pain. I don’t know the duration of the time when I was there and not too long after I heard the sound of the ambulance and I heard the nurse giving the attendant instructions as to how to lift me and so on which they did a very good job,” the injured man said.

He noted that when he was eventually examined at the MCMH, doctors said he had two broken legs, a broken right arm and an injury to his shoulder.

He said metal was placed in his right leg for stabilization and a cast placed on the other leg.

“I am just grateful. I see the walk as a walk of faith and a walk of gratitude that morning because from what I was told by persons who had come on the scene, if I had gotten out a bit earlier I would want to believe that the gentleman would have left me on the road like that,” Hannaway said, while adding that he is familiar with the family of the person who struck him but not the person himself.

“…And none of them have come to see me yet,” he told SEARCHLIGHT.

“The thing about it is, I would have extended caution on my part and what I understand after the incident I would want to believe the gentleman because of all the surroundings and what transpired, I think somewhat he acted a bit irresponsibly and his judgment would probably have been clouded…”.

Hannaway said someone relayed a comment alleged to have been made by the driver he [Hannaway] had a headphone in his ears and was running across the road.

“If you can be, as a driver, at a point where you can see somebody running across a road with a headphone in their ear, it means at some point you have to use your driving skills to stop the vehicle, or if the person at the extreme right you allow them to go to that end and you continue on your end,” he reasoned.

“When I saw the vehicle and I saw the impact and where I was, I believe I was in the middle of the road and he came around the corner and he wasn’t on his end and therefore I believe I got knock down.”

The Layou resident who is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church in that Leeward town said that it was a miracle that saved his life as days before he had a weird experience that, thinking back, seems to have been divine intervention.

Hannaway explained that a few days before the incident, he was in the vicinity of the Kingstown Vegetable Market when a young man asked him if he knew Jesus as his personal Saviour and he replied “yes”.

He said later when he was in hospital, the same person asked him the same question and he again replied “yes” but he has no idea who the person is.

“…I looked to the right of my bed and I saw someone looking like one of the elders in the church and I said ‘you reach?’ and then I realized it was the same man who spoke to me at the vegetable market and he asked me the same question.

“…When I looked around, everyone seemed to be sleeping and the nursing station had nobody there and I can’t even recall his clothing, but his voice is distinct and I don’t know if is a person who is alive or who is dead. I think I got a miraculous deliverance, that is how I see it,” Hannaway told SEARCHLIGHT.

He said also that his employers at East Caribbean Bottlers Inc., have been very supportive since he has been in hospital.