Barbados fatal crash court ruling 'extraordinary' - coroner

A speeding, unlicensed truck driver escaped charges over a fatal crash at a port because it did not happen on a public road, an inquest has heard.

Cruise ship passenger Janet Purkess, 87, from Lyndhurst, Hampshire, was crushed to death after disembarking from the Saga Sapphire in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 2020.

No Saga or port staff were monitoring the passengers and police did not interview the only eyewitness, coroner Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp told the hearing in Portsmouth.

In an "extraordinary ruling", a Barbados magistrate eventually dismissed charges against driver Anthony Walcott, she added.

Mrs Purkess was on a "long-awaited" Caribbean cruise which she had hoped to take with her husband before he died the previous year, the coroner said.

On 25 January, the ship made an unscheduled stop at Bridgetown for supplies and passengers were allowed to disembark.

Crewman Apolonio Abag said he heard loud revving as the truck driver reversed at speed and then saw Mrs Purkess lying on the ground.

"The driver was crying," he told the court. "He was going too fast... The sound of the engine was very high."

Barbados police found the death was caused by the driver's negligence, the inquest heard.

However, magistrates adjourned the case 19 times and then dismissed the charges without immediately telling police or the Purkess family, the court was told.

"It was quite an extraordinary ruling at that stage after so long," the coroner said.

"The really bad part of that is there was only a week to appeal and nobody was told."

Contrary to the magistrate's ruling, the crash site did fall within the scope of Barbados traffic law, the inquest heard.

The ship's captain, who did not attend the inquest, made an announcement to disembarking passengers to beware of port traffic and then left the vessel, the coroner told the court.

"Neither the captain nor anyone else appear to have taken any security measures," she added.

Walcott was working alone because his assistant had not been replaced, his lorry had no reversing alarm and his vision was restricted, she said.

Mrs Purkess suffered "horrific" injuries and would have died instantly, Ms Rhodes-Kemp added.

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