By: Joyetter Fa’apouli Feagaimaalii
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A woman who allegedly caused the crash of two police motorcycles, landing the officers in the hospital, was arrested and charged by police last week.
Dimary Stowers, who was bailed out on Thursday, made her initial appearance in the district court on Friday.
According to the government’s case, on March 06, 2023 at around 0744 hours, traffic police units were dispatched to a motorcycle crash in Tafuna, near the front gate of Pago Pago Trading Company.
Upon arrival on the scene, officers “observed Corporal Tuvale and Officer Iakopo rested [sic] next to their mutilated [ibid] motorcycles at about twenty feet apart, at the front gate of Pago Pago Trading company.
“Debris from the crash were [sic] also observed to be scattered mostly on the median line barrier, spreading to the eastbound lane and onto the roadside.
“At the scene the driver was still in her vehicle ‘shocked about the incident’.”
The criminal complaint states that Corporal Tuvale was carried into police unit 63 and was transported to the LBJ hospital, while Officer Iakopo who appeared to have suffered severe injuries, remained at the scene waiting for EMS to render medical attention.
At the police substation, a witness came forward and stated that once he heard police sirens he pulled over close to the dirt road from which Mrs. Stowers was driving.
“He had honked the horn of his vehicle at Mrs. Stowers as she was continuing [sic] driving out from the dirt road to let her know of responding police motorcycles heading on the westbound.
The witness then stated that Mrs. Stowers appeared to be distracted as she was observed using her phone while driving and entering onto the main highway.
“As Mrs. Stowers entered onto the main highway, she crashed into oncoming responding police motorcycles.
“Witness stated that he then saw one motorcycle went [sic] airborne and landing onto the opposite roadside and the other went [into a] head-on collision with Mrs. Stowers’ vehicle.”
Mrs. Stowers “admitted” to police that she heard the police sirens within the area and thought they were far away and that she saw the witness pulling over to stop on the left-hand side of the road and vehicles stopping on the right side of the road. Mrs. Stowers assumed both traffic lanes stopped and were giving way for her to enter onto the main highway.
“As Mrs. Stowers continued onto the main highway the impact was sudden, as [the] two responding police motorcycles crashed into the front bumper of her vehicle.”
Mrs Stowers was cited in violation of A.S.C.A title 22, Section 0701, Careless driving, title 22, Section 0502, Accidents involving personal injuries and title 22, Section 0503, Accident involving damages to vehicles.”
Furthermore, the criminal complaint noted that follow-up on the officers injured in the accident disclosed that Officer lakopo suffered an open fracture of the left ankle, closed fracture of the right tibia and fibula (Tibia and fibula are the two long bones located in the lower leg. The tibia is a larger bone on the inside, and the fibula is a smaller bone on the outside).
Corporal Tuvale suffered a closed fracture to the second metatarsal on his right foot and a closed fracture of the tibial plateau/ right knee.
Source: Samoa News
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