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5 tourists injured after minivan falls into ditch
Yet another vehicular collision at accident-prone Sugar King Park intersection
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- The Toyota Yaris sedan with license plate ACN-390 sustained extensive damage to the right front passenger side door after colliding with a minivan at the accident-prone intersection near the Sugar King Park in Garapan yesterday afternoon. (Ferdie de la Torre)
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- Two police officers inspect the minivan that fell into a ditch after it collided with a Toyota Yaris sedan at the accident-prone intersection of Chalan Pale Arnold Road and Kopa Di Oru Street near Sugar King Park in Garapan yesterday afternoon. Five of the 13 tourist passengers in the minivan were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. Both drivers were not injured. (Ferdie de la Torre)
Five persons, including a minor, were injured when a minivan loaded with tourists fell into a ditch after it collided with a car at the accident-prone intersection of Chalan Pale Arnold Road and Kopa Di Oru Street near Sugar King Park in Garapan yesterday afternoon.
An ambulance transported the five persons, all Korean tourists, to the Commonwealth Health Center for minor injuries. A few others suffered scratches on the arms and legs.
When Saipan Tribune left the scene, traffic officers were still conducting investigation to determine who was at fault. Officers were interviewing Jun Young Park, the male driver of the Grand Tour minivan, and Marie Johnson, the driver of a white Toyota Yaris sedan with license plate ACN-390.
Park complained of pain on the shoulder. Johnson was not injured.
The minivan had extensive damage after it fell and flipped to its right side into the 3-foot deep by 5-foot wide ditch on the shoulder of Chalan Pale Arnold Road or Middle Road.
Saipan Tribune learned that the minivan, driven by Park, had 13 tourist passengers. The minivan was heading north toward Saipan Kensington Hotel in San Roque after the tourists had finished doing marine sports at a hotel’s beach in Susupe.
The minivan collided with the Toyota Yaris, which crossed Chalan Pale Arnold Road from the corner of Kopa Di Oru Street coming from the Beach Road area. The collision caused the minivan to swerve to the shoulder of the road and fall into the ditch, located across Tropical Blendz.
Park and his 13 passengers managed to get out from the minivan through the driver’s side door.
The car driven by Johnson continued to travel until it stopped on the shoulder of the road. The car’s front right tire was already in the shallow part of the ditch. The car had extensive damage to the right front passenger side door.
According to Park, their minivan was heading north on their way to Kensington Hotel when the car coming from the intersection entered fast into the highway that resulted in the collision.
The teary-eyed Johnson refused to be interviewed by the media.
Last January, a car collided with a pickup truck at the same intersection, causing the male passenger of the truck’s bed to be tossed into the air and landed on the pavement. He died after a few days in the hospital. The driver, a music teacher, was arrested but the government subsequently dismissed the traffic charges against him.
