(CMR) A man whose wife was injured in a hit-and-run last Thursday, 18 May, while visiting the Cayman Islands via Carnival Glory cruise ship is appealing to persons who may have witnessed the incident to help identify the perpetrator.
The car involved has been described as a small gold Daihatsu by another person who witnessed the incident.
Ed Melton said his wife has suffered a broken tibia and will need surgery (screws and maybe a bone graft), a sprained right hand, and a broken left wrist.
Mr. Melton said his family was walking back from Cayman Spirits and tried to cross the southbound lane of Esterley Tibbetts Highway right where it enters the roundabout with N. Sound Rd. and Godfrey Nixon Way. He explained that he got both lanes of traffic to stop, and his wife started to cross in front of the vehicle in the right lane when the driver, an elderly, very thin, dark complected male with a thick, greying mustache and dark greying hair, decided to go.
“He struck my wife in the right hip, throwing her in the air. She landed on her left elbow and head. The worst part is the driver actually started to drive over her after she was knocked down! The only reason he stopped was my eldest daughter screamed at him, “Stop! You are running over my mom!” to which he replied, “She walked in front of me!” and he was still going forward,” Mr. Melton recalled.
He said he managed to pull his wife from under the front bumper of the vehicle and helped her to the center of the roundabout.
“At that time, the man, who was still yelling at us, drove off and disappeared into the roundabout,” he added.
Mr. Melton said they were assisted by two ladies but did not make a report to the police because they needed to return to the cruise ship on time,
“Two nice ladies stopped to help and expressed their shock over the man leaving and insisted that wasn't how Cayman people acted (we know this as we've visited a lot). In any case, we were so focused on the well-being of my wife and our need to get back to the cruise port on time we couldn't wait for the police (the man had left anyway), and we decided to just report it to Carnival security,” he explained.
Mr. Melton said the cruise ship security is communicating with the authorities, but he made a Facebook post with the hope of getting help to identify the driver.
“Had he just bumped and knocked my wife down, I would have understood that maybe there was a miscommunication, but the fact he tried to drive over her and fled the scene without checking on her tells me his intentions were nefarious or he was intoxicated (most likely). There was a lot of traffic in that area so surely someone on FB knows someone who saw this,” he stated.
He said as a result of the incident, the ship's medical bill was $US1,080, and they do not yet know what the medical bill in the US will be.
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