Father critical after car crashes with bus

A San Fernando man was critically injured in an accident involving a Public Transportation Service Corporation (PTSC) bus yesterday while on an errand to the supermarket. Kellon Benjamin, 21, of Ridgewood Gardens, Golconda, underwent emergency surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital, after suffering a broken hip, shoulder and legs. He also suffered multiple internal injuries in the crash, which occurred shortly after 9 am along the Lady Hailes Avenue, near the PTSC garage. So severe was the accident that bone protruded through his skin. Passengers heading to Port-of-Spain were required to leave the bus and were taken back to the terminus. According to reports, Benjamin was heading north in his white Nissan Sunny B-15, when he collided with the bus, which was heading in the opposite direction.

Witnesses said after hitting the bus, the car swerved and struck the bus again, before flipping several times and coming to a halt at the side of the road. Passers-by called the San Fernando Police, who responded along with an ambulance. So mangled was the wreckage that fire officers from the nearby San Fernando Fire Station had to use the “jaws of life” to free Benjamin’s body. Speaking at the scene, Benjamin’s mother, Shermine Caesar, said she was praying her son would survive the severe accident, as “it was not his time to die.” She said her son, who is unemployed, had just finished house chores and was going to the supermarket at Gulf City for milk and other baby supplies for his son, Kelon Benjamin. Caesar, an employee of SESL security services, stationed at Schlumberger Ltd, San Fernando, said she received a phone call around 9.13 am from an anonymous caller, informing her of the accident. She said she rushed to the scene and saw her son trapped behind the car seat and slipping in and out of consciousness.