LYING? DECEPTION? False Statements to the Police?
According to Channel 5 News, Charleston Police spokesman Charles Francis said investigators interviewed witnesses and those involved in the June 19 carriage incident. They also reviewed video footage, he said. That the wagon was involved in a hit and run by a tractor-trailor was the original explanation in the incident report. But video footage and witness statements revealed a very different story. There was no collision. Police say the horse was spooked by an unknown source coincidentally as the tractor-trailer passed by. “The carriage’s horse suddenly back-peddled causing the carriage to jackknife resulting in damage to the carriage unrelated to passing vehicles,” Francis said. “The horse then accelerated forward and the horse and carriage subsequently stopped near the northwest corner of City Hall”.”
Earlier reports stated that the driver fell over the wagon (leaving the wagon without a driver) and two people including the driver were transported to the hospital.
Francis went on to say that the police investigation is closed.
HMMMM… let’s talk about this… why is it that when carriage wagon incidents/accidents occur and a horse is out of control, too often the cry from the carriage industry is that it is someone else’s fault; a band playing, a group of children playing instruments, a tractor-trailer truck and on and on?
Who created the story line that it was someone else’s fault… in this case the tractor-trailer driver? Was it the carriage driver or the barn manager who typically write these reports? And… if knowingly false statement was given to the police, is there no punishment for that false statement? Especially when people’s lives were on the line?
Charleston city government’s first responsibility is for the safety of the public. Charleston has a Carriage Safety Ordinance before it yet the Tourism Commission seems to be protecting the Carriage Industry with their embarrassingly undemocratic process. If Charleston does not pass meaningful Carriage Safety Ordinance, Charleston stands to lose a lot more than its image… City elected officials stand to have blood on their hands when the inevitable occurs.
STAND WITH ANIMALS AND PEOPLE THAT DESERVE SAFETY ON CHARLESTON STREETS.
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