It was already dark when Branson Read began the ride home from work last Thursday evening, heading east on Sir Francis Drake Highway from Nanny Cay to Road Town. Traffic was moving slowly, and it soon became apparent why, Mr. Read said in an interview Tuesday: A white taxi bus several vehicles ahead of his began swerving into the wrong lane, causing oncoming traffic to veer off the road.
“I could just tell something was very wrong,” Mr. Read said.
Moments later he witnessed the taxi driver, Everette Pemberton, take a sharp right turn off the road and into the water near Fort Burt Hotel.
“I kept waiting to see brake lights,” Mr. Read said, “but he drove straight down the boat ramp. The bus was completely submerged.”
After trying to wave down several cars and yelling for help, Mr. Read stripped to his boxers, entered the water and swam toward the taxi bus, he said. But despite the subsequent rescue, Mr. Pemberton died at Peebles Hospital Saturday night around 8 p.m. of what hospital personnel reported as a cardiac arrest, according to acting Police Information Officer Carl Mason.
“The hospital also reported that he had been lucid after his initial recovery from the near-drowning,” Mr. Mason added.
See the March 14, 2013 edition for full coverage.
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