Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

A 22-year-old po­lice con­sta­ble who was in­jured af­ter the po­lice ve­hi­cle he was in crashed in­to an­oth­er ve­hi­cle last year is su­ing the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

Math­ew Di­az, last at­tached to the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Squad un­der the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, filed the per­son­al in­jury law­suit against the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, through his at­tor­ney Ki­ran Pan­day, on Mon­day.

He, along with his three col­leagues, was in a marked po­lice ve­hi­cle, a Toy­ota Hilux, near the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies in St Au­gus­tine on Au­gust 11, when they re­spond­ed to in­for­ma­tion from an in­for­mant.

With the swiv­el lights and siren turned on, the of­fi­cer who was dri­ving ac­cel­er­at­ed at a high rate of speed along the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route.

Up­on reach­ing the in­ter­sec­tion of Or­ange Grove Road, ac­cord­ing to his claim, the po­lice ve­hi­cle pro­ceed­ed through the red light.

The front of the po­lice ve­hi­cle col­lid­ed with the cen­tre of a black Hon­da CR-V which was pro­ceed­ing in a norther­ly di­rec­tion from Or­ange Grove Road.

When Di­az re­gained con­scious­ness, he ex­it­ed the ve­hi­cle and re­alised that his left arm was bro­ken.

He is con­tend­ing that the col­li­sion was caused by ex­ces­sive speed and the neg­li­gent man­ner in which his col­league ma­noeu­vred the ve­hi­cle.

He fur­ther claimed that his col­league drove with­out due care and at­ten­tion and failed to ad­here to the ex­is­tence of oth­er mo­tor ve­hi­cles present at the in­ter­sec­tion.

He was tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, where he re­ceived med­ical at­ten­tion and pro­ceed­ed on sick leave.

He at­tend­ed the or­thopaedic clin­ic eight times for fol­low-up treat­ment and was forced to hire a taxi be­cause he could not dri­ve due to his in­jury. He un­der­went surgery in Sep­tem­ber 2024, in which a met­al lock­ing plate and sev­er­al screws were im­plant­ed in­to his left arm.

Di­az, the law­suit stat­ed, con­tin­ues to ex­pe­ri­ence in­tense and con­stant pain through­out post­op­er­a­tive care.

He al­so un­der­went phys­i­cal ther­a­py. As a re­sult of the in­jury, Di­az can­not par­tic­i­pate in any sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ty as a re­sult of di­min­ished mo­bil­i­ty in his left arm.

He is al­so un­able to make a fist or grasp items with his left hand.

He is claim­ing gen­er­al dam­ages for pain and suf­fer­ing and loss of ameni­ties, as well as spe­cial dam­ages and any oth­er re­lief the court deems fit.