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No charges recommended against truck driver in traffic fatality

Video footage plays major role in decision
Translated by Samoa News staff

A police report of last Friday’s traffic accident where a 25-year-old died after being hit on the main road in Pago Pago allegedly by the back section of a container trailer truck, recommends the case be closed with no charges filed against the driver, according to senior police officers.

The man is also from Pago Pago and his identity has not been released by police. The Department of Public Safety’s Patrol Division carried out the investigation into the case.

A senior police officer told Samoa News that a report on the investigation was to have been forwarded to Attorney General’s Office yesterday afternoon and it will recommend to close the case, after the police investigation found that the truck driver wasn’t aware that someone had been hit.

At the outset of the investigation, police interviewed witnesses as they tried to piece together the cause of the death. Witnesses told Samoa News last Friday that the container trailer truck was heading east when they heard a loud noise. As the truck passed, they saw a body on the road and then contacted police. The incident occurred on the road fronting the Pago Youth Center building.

Samoa News also reported earlier that surveillance video footage from a store near where the incident occurred had been given to police to help with their investigation.

And it was this video footage that police reviewed and learned more about the incident. Samoa News understands that the video footage shows the man “all of a sudden” running into the trailer truck, at its back section.

A senior police officer says that based on what’s on the video the decision was then made to close the case, without charging the driver.

A source, who asked not be identified, said police — as part of their investigation — had questioned the driver and it’s clear at this point that no charges will be filed against the driver. Additionally, reports from the hospital indicate that there were two separate incidents where the deceased tried to hurt himself.

Samoa News extends our condolences to the family of the deceased.

 

(Original Samoan story published in Lali section of today’s Samoa News)