A few hours after the procession on Monday, a man crashed his car into the Santa Marian Kamalen Park in Merizo and left the scene as well as the statue of the park’s namesake … unscathed.
At around 11 o’clock on Monday night, Steven Cruz and Mike Tajalle were cleaning up the Santa Marian Kamalen Park in Merizo when a car crashed into the latte stone fixture at the park’s entrance, veered into a plaque, flipped, and then came to a stop at the foot of a statue of the saint.
A video taken by Tajalle of the event has been circulating on social media.
Shrapnel and broken glass littered the property from the impact and according to Cruz, a former police officer, the driver — a male in his early 20s — was conscious when he found him.
“I checked him for any injuries head to toe and he didn’t seem to have any visible injuries. He just said that he lost control of the brakes and I guess from there, he crashed into the park,” Cruz said.
Cruz adds that the driver was disoriented from the event and eventually left the scene.
As for the damages to the park from the crash, only the concrete latte stone at its entrance as well as an informational plaque was affected. The decades-old marble statue of the patroness was not harmed.
“On that same day when we celebrated Santa Marian Kamalen…that the guy survived and that there was no injuries … She’s our island saint. She’s our patron and she’s here to protect the island from disasters and this was a classic example that she protected the driver of that vehicle,” Cruz said.
Cruz has contacted the governor’s office to inform her of the park’s condition and to ask her for assistance. If you would like to offer help to restore the park, call Steven Cruz at 483-7341.
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