Seven-month pregnant woman struck by truck

Shelly-Ann Simmons is now a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, but she and her unborn child are lucky to be alive, after she was struck by a truck last Thursday, September 30, along the public road in Layou.{{more}}

The incident occurred shortly after 1:30 p.m.

Simmons, who is seven months pregnant, said that she was about to board a van to make her way into Kingstown when the accident occurred.

“I don’t recall fully what happened, exactly because I was knocked unconscious,” Simmons told SEARCHLIGHT.

“I hadn’t even crossed over, the last thing I remembered was the driver of the van called me to come over and I was putting up (away) the umbrella,” she continued.

“That was the last of it.”

The truck hit her as it was making its way between the van and a parked car.

Simmons said that she was later told by eyewitnesses that the vehicle flung her into the air upon impact, then she made contact with the windscreen and landed on the road. As a result, she sustained injuries to her head, lower back, hip and leg.

“When I heard that, I said thank God that everything was okay with my baby.”

“They were administering steroids to work on my side, but they were not working,” Simmons lamented.

She further stated that she is in a lot of pain and was currently waiting for the surgical counselor to give the all clear.

She said that she confronted the driver of the truck.

“I asked him why he was speeding and the road was wet.”

Simmons said that the driver said that he did not see her because his “glass was fogged

up.”

Furthermore, the young mother contends that she is being lied to by the driver and that she will be putting things in motion to have the issue settled legally, if an out of court settlement is not reached and agreed to by the driver.

She said that the driver visited her on Monday, October 4, and they discussed a proposed settlement.

Simmons told SEARCHLIGHT that the man said that he discussed the proposal with her mother.

She, however, said that her mother later related that nothing had been discussed.

She also said that he told her that he had since gone into the police.

However, Simmons said that when the police visited her on Tuesday, October 5, they said that this also did not take place.

“I thought he was a nice person, coming to visit me and telling me all this and in the long run, it is not so,” she said.

This incident follows a September 13, 2010, accident in which Shaunette Thompson, who was 5 months pregnant, lost her unborn child after she and her two daughters along with another woman were struck by a vehicle while standing along the public road at Chauncey. (DD)