Derek Achong

Two De­fence Force sol­diers re­mained in hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day af­ter be­ing se­ri­ous­ly in­jured in a truck ac­ci­dent in To­ba­go on Sun­day night. In a tele­phone in­ter­view, De­fence Force Civ­il-Mil­i­tary Af­fairs Of­fi­cer Ma­jor Al Alexan­der said the two men re­mained ward­ed at the in­ten­sive care units (ICUs) of Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and the West Shore Med­ical in Co­corite. Alexan­der said: "They are sta­ble and their con­di­tion are im­prov­ing slow­ly."

The sol­dier ward­ed at West Shore has been iden­ti­fied as Lance Cpl Azri­on Bod­ie. Bod­ie suf­fered in­juries to his head, chest, ribs, and a frac­tured left arm. The iden­ti­ty of the oth­er hos­pi­talised solid­er has been with­held by the De­fence Force, who on­ly con­firmed that he was suf­fer­ing from a bro­ken shoul­der blade. Alexan­der said that be­sides the duo, all the oth­er vic­tims of the crash had been dis­charged from hos­pi­tal, in­clud­ing the dri­ver of the truck, Lance Cpl Nicholas Mar­celle.

Coast Guard sailor Ter­ry Lyn An­tho­ny was ex­pect­ed to be dis­charged from the Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day evening af­ter hav­ing eye surgery for her in­juries from the crash. Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 6.30 pm, 23 peo­ple-17 De­fence Force per­son­nel, two sailors and four civil­ians-were trav­el­ling in the truck in Char­lot­teville, To­ba­go, af­ter com­pet­ing in a rug­by game over the week­end.

While ma­noeu­vring a sharp bend, Mar­celle re­port­ed­ly lost con­trol of the truck, which then flipped on its side. Sev­en­teen of the oc­cu­pants were in­jured, and eight of the most se­ri­ous­ly hurt were air­lift­ed to Trinidad on Sun­day night for treat­ment. Two were ward­ed in the ICU, while Mar­celle and the five oth­ers were dis­charged from the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt?Hope, on Mon­day evening.