Sonii Sirilo Vakalolo pictured with his car

It has been twelve months since a police vehicle allegedly slammed into the family car of musician Sonii Sirilo Vakalolo.

A year has slipped by since the crash on the Queen’s Highway outside Sigatoka town, a violent blur of shattering glass and twisting metal.

Vakalolo shared that thankfully, no one in the family was injured.

But the impact wrecked a car that was a major family investment, leaving Vakalolo and his four children struggling to manage daily transportation and cover repair costs.

Just hours earlier, he had made the final payment on the family’s 2012 Toyota Wish $23,000 hard-earned over years of late-night gigs and tight budgeting.

It was more than a car, Vakalolo said it was the link between his hillside home in Cuvu Top and the rest of his life, the school runs for his four children, the late-night drives back from performances, the countless trips hauling instruments to weddings and community events.

“We worked hard to pay it off. The day the accident happened, we had just finished paying the last dollar.”

That night, a police vehicle allegedly collided with the Wish. In seconds, Vakalolo’s family’s investment was gone. The car has been sitting idle ever since. Repairs are estimated at $8,000, a figure the household cannot afford.

Without the car, every school drop-off and trip to work now costs money they don’t have $30 for a taxi to town, $40 to get his instruments to a gig. The costs are constant. The exhaustion is just as heavy.

Police, he claimed, initially assured him the officer behind the wheel would take responsibility for the damage. A year later, not a cent has been paid.

“My family is paying for someone else’s mistake.”

For Vakalolo, the issue is no longer just about his own loss.

He worries about what the incident says about road safety and police accountability.

“Careless driving by police officers puts lives at risk. If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”

FBC News has raised the matter with police but we are yet to receive a response.

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