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Heavy equipment truck overturns on Isa Drive
On April 2, 2020, at about 10:51am, the CNMI Department of Public Safety received a 911 call reporting an overturned “honeywagon” on Isa Drive, near Vestcor Village. Nearby units responded to the scene. A honeywagon is a truck used to collect and transport human waste.
At approximately 10:52am, the first unit arrived on scene and noticed the overturned heavy equipment had human waste spilling from its containment tank. The officer checked the status of the operator and notified dispatch that the operator was stuck inside the cabin with his left leg pinned in the cabin and was experiencing pain on his left arm. Other units arrived and quickly directed traffic.
At about 10:54am, medics arrived on scene and assisted the driver of the overturned vehicle. The Jaws-of-Life tool was used to safely extract the driver from the truck’s cabin. Units from the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services flushed the contents that had spilled from the overturned truck off the road.
At about 11:34am, the driver was taken out of the truck and put onto a spine board before being transported to the Commonwealth Health Center, where he was admitted for his injuries.
After a follow-up interview, police learned that the driver had just left Kagman and was heading down Isa Drive when he noticed that the brakes on his vehicle were not functioning properly. The driver attempted to slow the vehicle by shifting to a lower gear, to no avail. The driver then looked for an area where he could limit damage to the vehicle, surrounding motorists, and himself. After noticing a hill, the driver chose to use the hill to slow the vehicle, before it overturned along the shoulder of the road. Police found that the driver was not using his seatbelt during the incident, which led to severe injuries the operator sustained. (PR)
