The V.I. Police Department on Monday arrested 43-year-old Marcos Arroyo-Torres and charged him with vehicular homicide and manslaughter in the traffic accident that took the life of five-year-old girl.
Charges also includes negligent driving and failure to stay as far left as possible, the police said.
Arroyo-Torres was the driver in a S-10 Chevy pick-up truck that was part of a two-car collision that caused the death of the five-year-old Penelope Tutein.
His bail was set at $25,000. Arroyo-Torres was able to post the 10 percent bail and was released.
According to the police report, at about 7:33 p.m., a two-cars collision occurred on Peter’s Rest Road, west of Cool Out Bar intersection of Estate Peter’s Rest. A four-door, gray, Dodge Durango operated by 28-year-old woman was driving eastbound and a brown Chevy S-10 pickup truck that police said was driven by Arroyo-Torres was heading westbound. According to police, the Chevy S-10 merged into the eastbound lane causing a head-on collision.
The Dodge Durango flipped twice and stopped on its left side, causing the two minor passengers in the back seat to be partially ejected. Citizens on the scene helped push the vehicle off both minors and removed them from under the vehicle.
Five-year-old Tutein, who had been a passenger in the Durango, died of her injuries at around 1:33 a.m. at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital.
Until the VIPD gets serious about child seatbelt enforcement, children will continue to die. Until a driver is charged for not properly securing a child in obedience of the law , more children lose their lives. Feeling sorry for the mom does not take obviate the wrong that happened. We can be sympathetic and honest at the same time.
Sounds rough, but so does the idea of another child dying.
I am so tired of driving around and seeing children standing in the back seat of a car in full view of the police. And when you make a seatbelt sign to the mother to be shown a middle finger.
This is also the fault of every policeman who drive by a pickup truck bed full of children. And every policeman who themselves drive their own children around while the child is standing in the front seat of their cruiser unrestrained, it’s not cute. Two or three children every year? This has got to stop.