Car strikes 2 prisoners on work detail on Cape
By Emily Sweeney and Anne Baker
The Boston Globe
MASHPEE, Ma. — Police say a drowsy driver hit two jail inmates who were picking up roadside litter on Route 28 in Mashpee yesterday morning, killing one and seriously injuring the other.
Mashpee police said that Daniel O. Price, 21, of Barnstable was traveling north toward Falmouth when his 2000 Nissan Altima struck Emanuel M. Moniz, 30, and Mark Joiner, 32, at the intersection of Route 28 and Industrial Drive shortly before 9 a.m.
Moniz and Joiner were part of a three-man crew of inmates from the Barnstable County Correctional Facility. Moniz suffered serious injuries and was later pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital, police said. The New Bedford resident had been serving a six-month jail sentence for distribution of a class B substance, according to the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Department.
Joiner, of South Yarmouth, was taken to Cape Cod Hospital and later transferred to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. A third inmate who was working with Moniz and Joiner was not hurt.
Police Chief Rodney C. Collins said Price, who was not injured, told an officer at the scene that he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
“He did acknowledge that he had fallen asleep,” Collins said. “He said that to one of the officers who arrived. A witness had said he maneuvered very abruptly to the right.”
No charges had been filed by yesterday afternoon, and police were still investigating the accident, Collins said.
The inmates had been picking up trash along the northbound lane of Route 28, near the Falmouth town line, when the accident occurred, police said. The three inmates were wearing orange jumpsuits and yellow hardhats, and a Sheriff’s Department prisoner transport van was parked on the side of the road with its emergency lights flashing, police said. A deputy sheriff who was monitoring the inmates witnessed the accident, police said.
The Barnstable county sheriff’s office would not provide details on Joiner’s criminal record. Inmates who work on trash details are typically serving relatively short sentences for crimes such as drunken driving or drug charges, said Roy Lyons, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. Inmates who have been convicted on weapons charges, domestic abuse, arson, and sex crimes are not allowed to work trash-collecting details, Lyons said.
Barnstable County Sheriff James M. Cummings said that trash pickup details are assigned to inmates who are on their way out of prison.
“These guys were close to being released,” said Cummings. “This is their first step back into the community, where they’re allowed to go out and work.”
Moniz had begun serving his sentence May 5 and had a parole hearing scheduled for Aug. 2, according to the sheriff’s office.
Cummings expressed sympathy to the Moniz family.
“This kid was going to be out in a week or two,,” said Cummings. “Our deepest sympathies go out to his family. Certainly he was a model inmate, to be where he was, out in that program.”
Copyright 2008 The Boston Globe