St. Peters:--- A police officer known as Officer Vernon Ranis severely injured his instep Sunday night when he was involved in an accident on L.B Scott Road. According to information reaching SMN News Officer Ranis collided with a mini van and somehow his instep got severely injured. SMN News further learnt that the van Officer Ranis collided into belonged to one of his colleague "Micheal" that is working in the Forensic Department at KPSM. At the time of the accident the owner of the van was going out with family members when the accident occurred. According to eyewitnesses the injured officer instep was cut into two and thus they believe he lost his instep. At the scene a commotion broke out when a website owner started to film the accident and CPO Chandler, the CPO of Cape Bay area allgedly lashed the phone out of website owner's hand. It must be noted that it is the ambulance personnel that asked the police for assistance when he noticed the owner of the website was filming inside of the ambulance. This of course sparked a huge argument at the scene between the officers and the owner of the website. It must also be noted that Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson was on the scene and at no time he communicated the information with members of the media. Already SMN News indicated to Chief of Police Carl John that he needed to take actions against his press officer and best friend who is not doing his job, Henson is in the habit of cursing media personnel and even withholding information and then blame it on the detectives citing that they are not giving him information. The misinformation that is circulated on the social media could have been avoided if the Police Spokesman had done his job. Another point that has to be raised is that police officers cannot abuse the power of their uniform to attack press personnels. People have the right to take photographs and video any accident or crime scene as long as they are on the public road and does not interfere with the crime scene. This abuse of power by police officers are not acceptable especially when the press officer of KPSM is not doing his job, but instead finds the time to drive around his best friend whom he said will "pull him up the ladder" when he gets the seat as chief of police. Damaging equipment of media workers should also not be tolerated as everyone has to do their jobs and while the police on the scene were doing everything possible to protect their co-workers, both the victim and the driver of the mini-van they need to know that the public has every right to know what has happened in their community. Officer Vernon Ranis is well known heavy drinker, several persons on the social media are now questioning if the injured officer was drunk at the time of the accident but up this time SMN News could not verify what time Officer Ranis finshed working on Sunday and this website cannot say if the injured officer was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. SMN News further learnt that Officer Ranis went to a bar and was drinking after he finished working. SMN News also managed to obtain reliable infomation that the officer had a high level of alcohol in his blood when he was taken to St. Maarten Medical Center for treatment.
Chief of Police Carl John told SMN News in an invited comment Monday morning that Officer Ranis was on his way home when the accident occurred. John said the officer severely injured his instep but he did not lost a foot as was reported. “Indeed my officer suffered severe injuries to his instep but KPSM is working on getting the officer evacuated for further medical treatment. I cannot say if doctors overseas will manage to save the officer foot, but at this moment he did not lose his foot. We are hoping that he could undergo reconstructive surgery to save his foot.” Asked if Officer Ranis was under the influence of alcohol or if he was drunk at the time of the accident John said they also heard the same story that SMN News got and because of that he asked the traffic department to further investigate the case, especially to see if the injured officer was under the influence of alcohol. "At this moment I cannot confirm whether or not the officer was under the influence but what I can say is that the traffic department is also investigating that."
Police officer seriously injured in traffic accident.
The police traffic department is presently investigating a serious head-on collision involving a motorcycle police officer and a small van driven by another police officer. The call came in to the Emergency Dispatch Center around 08.45 p.m. on Sunday October 15th, informing them of the collision which took place on the L.B. Scot in the vicinity of the Sheik Supermarket. The call also stated that the motorcycle officer was severely injured and needed immediate medical attention. The female occupant of the van driven by another police officer suffered a small wound to her head which also needed medical attention.
The scene was closed off and traffic in and out of Sint peters was diverted for the emergency services to attend to the victim and conduct an investigation. Both victims were treated on the scene by paramedics and then transported to the Sint Maarten Medical Center for further treatment.
The doctors stated during treatment of the motorcycle officer that his left foot was seriously damaged and partially severed and that he would need immediate surgery. After coming out of surgery the doctors stated that the condition of the officer was stable and would recommend at a later stage if he would flown abroad for further medical attention.
The police traffic department is conducting an in depth investigation to determine exactly what caused the accident. As more information regarding the condition of the officer becomes available the media will be informed.
KPSM Police Report