00:00Motorists are urged to be vigilant following the tragic death of Michael King on Saturday
00:06after a vehicle crossed two lanes and the median along the Ryabutla Highway and slammed into his car.
00:14His wife, who was also in the vehicle at the time, remains hospitalized with severe injuries.
00:21Police Road Safety Officer Brent Batson tells the Morning Edition
00:24crossover accidents of this nature are often unsurvivable.
00:30When highway crossovers happen, the energy involved in this impact is really, really severe.
00:38You talk about energy that's canceling each other on impact,
00:43so it's almost like two vehicles that hit each other 200 kilometers per hour
00:48when vehicles hit each other head-on due to crossovers.
00:52And usually that impact is unsurvivable.
00:55In fact, the only reason that mitigated the other person's injuries
01:01as the driver of the Hilux, the 22-year-old, was the size of the vehicle.
01:07He also cautions members of the public against speculation circulating on social media
01:12about the cause of the crash, including claims of speeding or an argument
01:17Batson stresses that investigators have not yet determined what led to the collision.
01:24What we did see in the camera footage on Marlon was where something,
01:30something caused the driver to initially move that vehicle steering sharply to the left.
01:36Then he overcorrected, which caused the loss of control parameter
01:41and launched the vehicle across the centre median.
01:45So, if we look at the traffic pattern of the vehicle before,
01:51there was no sign of, per se, any sort of loss of control or inconsistency in its driving.
01:57Meanwhile, Batson is putting motorists on notice ahead of the long Easter weekend.
02:02That the police service is intensifying enforcement operations.
02:07He warns that officers will be deploying new technology
02:10to detect dangerous driving and other traffic violations.
02:15Just before this long Easter weekend,
02:20the police will be deploying some new speed technology,
02:26especially in the highways to begin with.
02:29These are some new speed guns.
02:32that are going to be deployed.
02:34So, you're going to see some level of presence and speed detection
02:41that you have not seen on the highways in a while.
02:45And this will be for both day and night.
02:48Batson notes that road deaths for the year so far have decreased by 31%,
02:53but he admonishes both the public and state agencies to remain alert.
03:00Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
03:04SILIGNON and TV66 News.
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