THE DRIVER of a Honda Fit, along with two officers and two inmates, were taken to the hospital after a collision with a prisoner transport bus near the Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge on December 16, 2025. Photo: Keile Campbell
By KEILE CAMPBELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
A 21-year-old man was rushed to the hospital yesterday after his car collided with a police bus carrying prisoners during rush hour at the foot of the Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge.
Two prisoners and two officers on the bus were taken to the hospital, The Tribune understands.
The incident follows calls for authorities to change the practice of rushing prisoners to and from the Bahamas Department of Corrections during rush hours.
In October, a Tribune editorial called the practice “an inconvenience to other road users” that is “dangerous in the extreme, since the 'Prison Bus' does not abide by traffic lights, let alone any of the rules of the road.”
Shanti Poitier, 20, the fiancée of the 21-year-old, said she learned about yesterday’s incident in real time over a phone call that abruptly went dead. Her fiancé had dropped her home moments earlier when she received a brief “Please call me” text message. When she called back, he told her he had been in an accident.
“When I called, he was like he got in an accident and at first I was confused cause I was like, what you mean?” she said, adding that his tone immediately felt “off”. “So I kept asking him what you mean. I hope you ain't playing with me and the call cut.”
She said she called him back repeatedly, struggling to understand what had happened.
She said: “I said, I hope you ain't playing with me, are you serious? He was like, why would I lie about something like that and when he said that, I was like, I'm on my way.”
She drove straight to the junction of Church Street and East Bay Street at the entrance to the Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge, where she saw the wrecked vehicle before she had even come to a stop.
“I saw the car from when I was on the light. It was just fireworks after that,” she said. “Before I stopped the car, I was in full-on tears.”
Ms Poitier said she rushed to her fiancé as soon as she got out of her vehicle and found him slumped over inside the car.
“Nobody else was checking on him. He was barely responding,” she said.
She said her mother arrived shortly after and helped her try to keep him alert.
“My mum came, and she assisted me in laying him back, and getting his attention, but after a few minutes I ended up talking to the officers, the wrecker, and she was still assisting him and she said he passed out and that's when EMS came, and they started to get him together to carry him,” she said. “After that, it wasn't much. It was mostly me just crying.”
She said she did not speak with emergency medical personnel and was unable to get updates on his condition before he was taken to the hospital.
She said she also tried to get answers from an officer who was on the police bus involved in the collision, but was told he could not explain what happened.
“He told me he couldn't really tell me nothing because he was watching the prisoners on the bus,” she said. “I asked him after that if sirens were sirens on, he told me he doesn't know. He was watching the prisoners.”
Police officers at the scene declined to provide a briefing on the incident
Comments
Porcupine 19 hours, 58 minutes ago
Why do we never listen, and never learn? Has not this dangerous practice been raised over and over?
SP 19 hours, 56 minutes ago
The only people that couldn't see this was highly inevitable to happen sooner or later are the powers that be!
Fortunately, no one was killed. What if the accident involved a bus load of school children or tourist.
Why the hell is it even remotely necessary for the prison bus to be rushing prisoners to and from the prison? The prisoners are guarded, have police escorts, and can't escape.
What's the point of endangering everyone else to get prisoners to courts that move at snails pace or back to prison cells???
I guarantee the geniuses that decided this stupidity makes any sense will not identify themselves or take responsibility for their decision.
B_I_D___ 19 hours, 50 minutes ago
Police power trippin’ and putting citizens lives at risk unnecessarily. The amount of damage and chaos they cause when they do that crap is unreal. What doesn’t get reported is how many vehicles are damaged on an almost daily basis when they do this foolishness…just doesn’t get reported as they’re are no injuries.
bahamarich 19 hours, 10 minutes ago
I was literally run off the road while driving through a traffic circle that the police bus entered while I was already in it. I kew nothing about the fact that police buses don't follow traffic laws. It had no flashing lights or siren. No one follows the law here in Nassau, not even the police.
Sickened 18 hours, 57 minutes ago
The politicians and the police force are fools for allowing this to continue.
Sadly we can only pray that one of their own gets into a serious accident with this bus and only then will the dim light in their tiny brains go on.
We are led by fools!!
bahamianson 15 hours, 21 minutes ago
Whomever is in charge of this , should be fired. Let’s continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. Government should make life better for its citizens. This continues to happen and there is not a politician to speak to change. They leave things as is , even when it doesn’t work.
hj 14 hours, 54 minutes ago
Surprised this accident didn't happen before. Driving like lunatics through the heavy traffic. Give Bahamians a badge and some kind of authority and they believe they are Gods.Will be any consequences for the person/s responsible? I seriously doubt it.
DWW 14 hours, 35 minutes ago
par for course with the RBPF who have clear and present entitlement syndrome along with ivory tower perspective of do as I say not as I do just like an abuse father. The elected officials do nothing but line their pockets case in point - by the time the Bahamas got around to creating a law banning cigarette lighters on passenger planes the USA had already repealed it. Guess, what the Bahamas didn't repeal it either because the elected eejits too busy lining pickets and giving out land to buddies and sweethearts. I lost all respect for the force in 80's when they started this bogus death race on the streets. Lets not even begin to address the wild behavior of individuals careening around the streets for fun instead of doing actual police work.
BahamaRed 13 hours, 22 minutes ago
This is not the first accident involving a prison bus carrying prisoners. The time before they crashed into the wall at the Mackey and Shirley Streets junction. They will no heed warnings until it becomes a catastrophic amount of fatalities. Smdh...
Porcupine 11 hours, 14 minutes ago
How about a statement from the Commissioner of Police stating that this practice will end tomorrow.
joeblow 8 hours, 16 minutes ago
... stupid is as stupid does! No worries, the more-ons will be back at it tomorrow morning weaving through traffic like they are insane. They could always transport prisoners well before and after high traffic times, but not before causing a few fatalities of innocent drivers trying to get to or from work!
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