1 dead in Marpi car accident

A car accident in Marpi around midnight last Sunday killed one teenager and sent two others to the hospital’s intensive care unit, according to the Department of Public Safety.

According to a police officer, DPS officers and Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to Marpi last Sunday, Aug. 14, to what DPS refers to as an “auto ran-off,” usually referring to a collision that occurs when a vehicle leaves the road.

At the scene, medics and DPS officers found one of the car’s occupants with no pulse and not breathing, while the other two occupants were given emergency treatment before being transported to the Commonwealth Health Center and later taken into the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, responsive occupants of the vehicle informed police that the driver of the vehicle had ran off on foot. He later turned himself in. Saipan Tribune later learned that the driver is 18-year-old Andrei Camacho.

The officer chose to withhold the identity of the occupants of the vehicle as they are minors.

According to an official press release from the DPS spokesperson Adrian Pangelinan, DPS units were called to respond to an auto run off in Marpi along Chalan Kalabera at around 12:08am on Sunday.

At the scene, officers met with two male teenagers who stated that they were in pain. While they were being treated, the two individuals asked the officer to check on the third passenger who was still inside the vehicle further up the road. That’s when the officer noticed a silver Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, with extensive damage in a ditch near the roadway.

The officer noticed that the passenger inside the vehicle was unresponsive.

Later, all three passengers were transported to CHCC where a physician pronounced one of the victims dead on arrival at about 1:36am due to blunt force trauma.

The officer later learned from the two teen passengers that the driver had “disappeared” on foot and was nowhere to be found following the crash.

On the same day, the driver of the vehicle, Camacho, turned himself in to DPS at around 4pm.

DPS officers learned that the cause of the crash was speeding and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Camacho is currently facing charges of failure to maintain the right side of the highway, reckless driving, driving under the combination of drugs and alcohol, seatbelt violation, hit and run, homicide by vehicle, and refusal to submit to a blood draw.