Motorist injured in road accident

A MOTORIST was transported to the hospital Tuesday afternoon after a pink convertible he was driving flipped over on the beach across from the Bank of Saipan building in Oleai on Beach Road.

 At about 1:58 p.m.,  Department of Public Safety officers arrived on scene and found the driver,  who is believed to be in his mid-20s, unconscious at the foot of stairs that lead to the Beach Road pathway.

It is believed that the driver was the vehicle’s only occupant.

The vehicle, which sustained considerable damage, landed upside down on the sand after ramming through two bollards and a concrete abutment between the pathway and the beachside.

An officer on the scene said it appears that the driver lost control of the car which could have been traveling at high speed.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Damian Vieira was on his way to a Toys for Tots pick-up at the Bank of Saipan when he and his fellow Marines heard a “loud commotion” from across the road.

“We turned around and we saw that everyone was screaming, ‘They just crashed! It’s a crash!’ so we ran across the road and that’s when I saw the vehicle flipped over. I smelled smoke, so I jumped down there to see if anybody was still in the vehicle. I [saw] that [the vehicle’s occupant] had already crawled  out of the vehicle and was leaning up against the sidewalk. I [told] him  not to move and [to] control his breathing, and [I asked the other] people not to move him so he [would] not get himself further [injured],” Sgt. Vieira said.

“I left the scene when the paramedics showed up. I thought that they were the best people to deal with it, and there was nothing else I could do but get out of the way once they were there.”

The police investigation into this auto runoff incident remains ongoing.

An auto runoff incident occurred Tuesday on Beach Road in Oleai, across from the former Hakubotan building which is now the Bank of Saipan.