A five-year-old boy has died, and another child remains seriously injured following a motor vehicle collision at Il Pirata, Vieux Fort, prompting renewed calls for parents and motorists to ensure children are properly restrained while travelling.
The victim has been identified as Kervil Lawrence, a kindergartener at Piaye Combined School.
According to the Saint Lucia Fire Service, emergency personnel responded to the incident at approximately 2:45 p.m. after receiving reports of a vehicle that had left the roadway and collided with a tree.
“Officers of the Saint Lucia Fire Service responded at approximately 2:45 p.m. to a reported motor vehicular collision involving a motor vehicle veering off the road and into a tree at Il Pirata, Vieux Fort,” the Fire Service said.
Firefighters found four people involved in the collision, including two adults and two young boys.
“On arrival at scene, four persons were found to be involved in the incident, two adults, female and male, and two minor boys,” the statement noted.
Emergency responders assessed and treated all four occupants before transporting them to hospital.
“On assessment, both adults complained of body pain and sustained injuries about the body. The minor boys were assessed with one sustaining head trauma and the other presenting head trauma with negative vitals. They were all treated then transported to a medical facility for advance medical care,” the Fire Service reported in a July 23 statement.
Authorities later confirmed that Kervil succumbed to his injuries, while the second child remains hospitalized.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, President of the National Association of Driving Schools (NADS), Kingson Jean, stressed that proper child restraints dramatically reduce the risk of fatal injuries in road traffic collisions.
“When you have a collision at only 40 miles per hour, that child’s impact force increases to about 1,500 to 3,000 pounds of pressure,” Jean explained.
“So you can have a child that’s about, yes, 50 pounds. You now multiply that 50 pounds by 30. So you’re now looking at 1,500 pounds. That’s the weight of a Toyota Yaris resting on your child when the child hits a wall when you get out of that vehicle. The impact force is very, very, very great at that point in time.”
Jean also warned against allowing young children to travel in the front seat, particularly in vehicles equipped with airbags.
“Airbag deploys at 200 miles per hour. A seatbelt on a child at 200 miles per hour will snap that child’s neck. That child will definitely die,” he said.
He urged parents to use age-appropriate child restraints and to ensure children are seated in the rear of the vehicle.
“So you look at the child in the rear-facing car seat, so then the child is now cocooned between the seat and the car seat and the vehicle seat, which is way safer,” Jean explained.
“But the best place to have a child definitely is in the back. And even then in the back, that child should have a booster seat so it could have the seat belt on as well. The child is probably about nine or 10 because he won’t be able to sit in the car seat at that point in time.”
The fatal collision has once again drawn attention to the importance of child passenger safety, with road safety advocates urging motorists to ensure children are always secured using the appropriate restraints before every journey.