Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma re­mains ward­ed at Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal af­ter sus­tain­ing mi­nor in­juries in a ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dent yes­ter­day. The Toy­ota Pra­do in which Shar­ma was trav­el­ling flipped sev­er­al times af­ter col­lid­ing with a Maz­da 323, dri­ven by Yuri Di­az, of Bagatelle Road, San Juan. Po­lice said around 1.45 pm, Shar­ma's dri­ver, An­ton Mitchell, was pro­ceed­ing south along La­dy Young Road, Mor­vant, when, on reach­ing near Mor­vant Av­enue, the Pra­do and the car dri­ven by Di­az col­lid­ed. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Di­az was at­tempt­ing to turn right in­to Mor­vant Av­enue. Shar­ma was in the back seat of the SUV at the time of the ac­ci­dent. Shar­ma, Mitchell and Di­az all suf­fered mi­nor in­juries and were tak­en to hos­pi­tal.

Speak­ing with re­porters out­side the hos­pi­tal, Dr Rai Rag­bir said it was a mir­a­cle for Shar­ma's ve­hi­cle to flip with­out him and his dri­ver be­ing se­ri­ous­ly in­jured. "Shar­ma's X-rays, CT scans and blood work are all okay," Rag­bir said. "He was jolt­ed in the ac­ci­dent and suf­fered a sprained an­kle...He has a slight abra­sion above his right eye." Shar­ma was kept overnight at the hos­pi­tal for ob­ser­va­tion and should be dis­charged lat­er to­day. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ar­rived at the hos­pi­tal at around 4.20 pm and told re­porters she was trau­ma­tised on hear­ing the news of the ac­ci­dent but was hap­py that Shar­ma was okay.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "I spoke to him, he seems fine and is in good spir­its...He needs to rest now."

Shar­ma was vis­it­ed at the hos­pi­tal by sev­er­al gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, in­clud­ing House Speak­er Wade Mark, Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Kahn, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, Labour Min­is­ter Er­rol McLeod and Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Fazal Karim. Shar­ma's wife, Lyn, sev­er­al rel­a­tives and of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment al­so vis­it­ed him yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. Both ve­hi­cles were towed and im­pound­ed at the Mor­vant Po­lice Sta­tion. Sgt Pow­der of the Mor­vant Po­lice Sta­tion is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.