Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Residents rescue Corporal Audley Buckley who was pinned beneath his service vehicle after it plunged over an embankment and into the Morant River in St. Thomas yesterday. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
A SUB-OFFICER attached to the Trinityville Police Station, St. Thomas, was nearly crushed to death yesterday when his service vehicle plunged over an enbankment and into the Morant River.
He has been identified as Audley Buckley, a senior police corporal, who was on express duty from Morant Bay to Trinityville.
According to an eyewitness who assisted in the rescue operation, the corporal was observed driving along the Belevedere main road when he suddenly arrived at a point in the road which had been badly broken up.
Within seconds, the jeep went over the embankment and disappeared. The officer was thrown out of the vehicle and pinned beneath it. The eyewitness -The Gleaner's Chief Photographer Rudolph Brown - then called Police Control and informed them about the accident.
Shortly after the lawman's service revolver was secured for safe keeping, a bus transporting several persons to a funeral stopped briefly and two of the passengers began searching the jeep and made inquiries as to the whereabouts of the policeman's firearm.
Up to late yesterday afternoon, reports were that the policeman, who is suspected to have sustained a broken leg, was taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital, where he was admitted in stable condition.
Chairman of the Police Federation, Corporal Raymond Wilson, said the accident highlights the federation's call for the Government to provide better insurance coverage for service vehicles. He stressed that in accidents such as these, in the event the police is seriously injured, there is not much to get by way of compensation.
And while expressing gratitude to the members of the public who assisted the injured policeman, Corporal Wilson said he was unable to say how badly injured his colleague was.
