Four people were airlifted from Union Island to St. Vincent today (Tuesday), after they sustained broken bones and other injuries when a minivan crashed in the southern Grenadine island around 3 p.m.
iWitness News was reliably informed that three passengers — two males and one female — as well as the driver of the vehicle sustained injuries during the accident in Donaldson, Clifton.
A source speculated that the brake failed as the vehicle, HN 807, was travelling down a slope, causing the driver to lose control of the minivan, which crashed into a concrete perimeter wall.
Videos circulated on social media showed the mangled vehicle against the wall.
Two aircraft were chartered to transport the injured people to Argyle International Airport, a 20-minutes flight away.
It was not clear to which medical facility the injured were taken when they arrived in St. Vincent, but both the Georgetown and Kingstown hospitals are located an equal distance from the airport.
The Stubbs Polyclinic is about 20 minutes drive from the airport.
One person who spoke to iWitness News noted that relatives of the injured had to charter the aircraft to bring them to St. Vincent and raised questions about the medevac vessel that the government purchased last year for that purpose specifically.
In October 2020, the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines officially received an EC$4.3 million Coast Guard medevac vessel to be used to transport ill people throughout the archipelago.
The 52-foot-long, 16-foot-beam boat — “SVG 05 –Balliceaux” — can travel at a top speed of 33 nautical miles.
This means that it would take just over one hour to travel the 41 nautical miles between Kingstown and Union Island.
So…where exactly was SVG05- Balliceaux when it was needed in Union Island and why was it not made available in a timely manner to respond to this emergency? This begs the question if Southern Grenadines taxpayers are getting anything at all for their money or just being ignored once again for having voted overwhelmingly NDP. Those injured and their families deserve some answers, and quickly.