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Teen has no recollection of bike smash

A teenager seriously injured in a three-vehicle collision last year said he remembers nothing of the crash that hospitalised him.

While 17-year-old Rashaun Zuill remains overseas receiving treatment for his injuries more than a year after the crash, the Supreme Court yesterday heard written testimony from the teenager as the trial against the man charged with causing the November 2012 collision continued.

Jahni Holder, 19, from Ridgeway Road, Pembroke, has admitted driving a motorcycle without a licence or valid insurance, but has denied causing grievous bodily harm while driving without insurance or a licence, and driving without due care.

Prosecutor Larissa Burgess read the court a written statement by the victim in which Mr Zuill said he remembers driving east along South Road on the evening of the crash, but he could not recall the accident itself.

Mr Zuill wrote that he remembers riding past Henry VIII restaurant, but the next thing he remembers is waking up in a Boston hospital surrounded by his family.

The jury was also told Mr Zuill broke his jaw, right arm, right wrist and right leg in the collision, along with suffering a punctured right lung and road rash.

Makinday Johansen, who was riding behind Mr Zuill, told the court on Monday he saw an oncoming motorcycle strike Mr Zuill’s vehicle head on in the eastbound lane, sending both riders flying. Mr Johansen said his motorcycle was then struck by the oncoming motorcycle, knocking him and his pillion passenger to the ground.

Collision investigator Emerson Carrington testified yesterday that, based on forensic evidence left on the scene of the accident, including scrape marks in the road, and damage to the vehicles involved, he believes the collision took place in the eastbound lane of the road.

He told the court that it appears Mr Holder’s vehicle struck Mr Zuill’s motorcycle head-on. A moment later a third vehicle, which had been travelling east behind Mr Zuill’s motorcycle, also become entangled in the accident.

All three vehicles were sent skidding away from the impact, with Mr Zuill skidding into a bus lay-by in the eastbound lane, and Mr Holder skidding into the westbound lane.

Under cross examination by defence lawyer Richard Horseman, Mr Carrington said he found no evidence at the scene of a fourth vehicle involved in the collision, but acknowledged that he had not spoken to any of the people involved in the collision about the accident.

“When I got to the scene, none of the drivers involved in the collision were there,” he said. “I based my findings on the forensic evidence at the scene.”

Mr Horseman suggested that Mr Zuill’s vehicle was travelling east in the westbound lane and attempting to enter the correct lane when the collision occurred, but Mr Carrington maintained that the evidence said otherwise.