A Bucks security officer was
fired after he totaled a security
vehicle in an accident that may
have been the result of reckless
driving.
In the late evening hours of
Sunday, March 1, Safety and
Security Officer Nehkawah
Gbeintor said he was in the passenger’s
seat when fellow officer
Sean Williams was attempting
“slides” in the falling snow in C
Lot. Williams was apparently
accelerating and then breaking in
order to slide the vehicle into a
fishtail.
Gbeintor said Williams lost
control of the vehicle and
crashed into a tree. The driver’s
and passenger’s airbags were
deployed, and the car was badly
damaged.
Gbeintor said that after following
a suspicious vehicle out of
campus, Williams fishtailed the
security vehicle down Linden
Lane, toward Lot C, instead of
dropping him off at his own
security vehicle.
“I’m from West Africa and I
don’t know much about snow,”
said Gbeintor. “I didn’t really
know what he was trying to do.”
Upon entering Lot C, Williams
allegedly accelerated to 50 mph
in an attempt to fishtail, but lost
control, spun around, missed the
emergency call box and slammed
the front and passenger’s side of
the vehicle into a tree. “He got
his slide,” said Gbeintor, “but it
was more than he bargained
for.” He added, “It was stupid
and reckless.”
Assistant Director of Safety
and Security Mark Moore
checked the scene in C Lot
around 1 a.m. March 2, several
hours after the 11:45 p.m. crash,
and found no evidence of tire
tracks, as snow continued to fall.
Williams report stated that he
was going 15 mph in C Lot in
order to hit a chip, a checkpoint
system in which officers use a
metal key to fit into circular
“chips” across campus, when he
lost control of the car.
When asked how fast the car
was going, Moore said, “I am not
an expert on how to gauge
speed, but it was greater than 15
mph.” Pennsylvania law states
that in a school zone, drivers are
to observe a 15 mph speed
limit-the speed limit posted on
all three Bucks campuses. The car, estimated at $16,000-
$24,000, was leased, and the
intention, according to Moore,
was to “buyout the car and cycle
it down to other departments in
the college that use vehicles.”
But now, Safety and Security
has only one car for a few
months until a new one can be
purchased.
Safety and Security has a daily
log of incidents that occur, but
the crash was not reported.
When asked why a security officer
totaling a car was left out of
the log, Moore said the incident
was not a threat to the campus
environment and would
only have been reported if it was
during school hours.
A report was filed via phone to
the Newtown Police
Department, but the township
did not send out any officers to
take a report.
Will this incident spawn limited
use of campus vehicles for
probationary officers?
“We can’t really,” said Moore,
“because they are for response
purposes and need to be available.
However, things will be
stemming out of this that
hopefully impacts further behavior
in the future.”
But this isn’t the first report of
improper behavior from security
officers.
Safety and Security staff said
an on-duty officer apparently
drove a security vehicle to the
Oxford valley area at night a few
months ago. The officer was
allegedly seen getting into a
Bucks security vehicle in that
area around 10 p.m.
Moore said that such incidents
are reviewed in monthly training
meetings that last three to four
hours. The next meeting takes
place after spring break, in the
last week of March.
Williams has been relieved of
his duty as an officer, but “official
paperwork is that he
d i d n ‘ t
complete his probationary term,”
said Moore. Each officer is to
complete 120 days of probationary
work to “see if they are a
good fit.” Williams was “in part”
let go for the crash, but Moore
cited other personnel issues that
led to the decision to let him go.
Gbeintor said that Williams
had allegedly been cited for
“careless stuff, such as driving
on the grass.”
Gbeintor has yet to return to
work since the incident. He said
he was injured in the crash and is
upset that an ambulance or the
police did not respond to the
crash. Safety and Security is
“awaiting a doctor’s report
releasing him back into work,”
said Moore.
Safety and Security Director
Chris Lloyd has been pushing for
the installation of video cameras
throughout all three Bucks campuses.
Director of Student Life Matt
Cipriano says the administration
may phase in cameras over a
period of time.