Prosecutors charged Mr. Allen with one count of causing death due to reckless driving and one count of reckless driving. On Tuesday, Magistrate Valerie Stephens granted the taxi driver bail of $60,000, provided he pays $25,000 of that amount in cash. He must also check in with Road Town police four times each week.

Mr. Allen, operating a bus for Island Adventures, drove a group of 20 tourists from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship on a tour of Sage Mountain. After stopping the bus at a lookout on Windy Hill Road, Mr. Allen descended the hill too fast, according to prosecutors. Then driver allegedly steered the vehicle down the hill, where it collided with the foundation of a ruin before overturning.

“The vehicle started to accelerate and despite efforts, the driver was unable to bring the vehicle to a stop,” said Senior Crown Counsel Candace Raphael-DeJongh. “We are claiming that his driving was reckless because he was going at a speed at which he was unable to control the vehicle.”

During the accident Mr. Rumphrey, who was sitting behind the driver, was thrown from the bus and pinned underneath it, the prosecutor said. Mr. Rumphrey was brought to Peebles Hospital where he died at around 11:15 a.m. At least four other passengers sitting on the right side of the bus received serious injuries from the crash, Ms. Raphael-DeJongh said.

She added that when Mr. Allen’s bus took off that day, “a loud screeching was heard from the brakes” but the driver kept going anyway. She said the Crown hopes to prove that Mr. Allen “ought to have known” about any issue with the vehicle.

Defence Counsel Stephen Daniels, Mr. Allen’s attorney, said that brake failure, not reckless driving, caused the accident. According to the attorney, when Mr. Allen, a single father of a 6-year-old, started down the hill, he put the bus into second gear but realised there were no brakes. He tried pumping the brakes but the vehicle sped down the hill, not because of Mr. Allen’s actions, but because it was heavy with the tourists’ weight, Mr. Daniels said.

The driver’s options were limited and the accident would have been worse if Mr. Allen had turned left, the lawyer said.

“He had no alternative but to put the bus in those ruins. If he’d done anything else he would have gone off the hill. He should be commended,” Mr. Daniels said.

He added that an inspection of the bus from a private local mechanic would prove that the accident was caused by brake failure.

The full article appears in the March 4, 2010 issue.