Two people were killed and three teenagers were fighting for their lives at hospital last night after an early-morning car crash along the Uriah Butler Highway yesterday.Police said Rajesh Dwarika, of Fourth Street, and an unidentified woman was killed in the crash, which occurred near the Caroni Bird Sanctuary.
Passengers Rohan Browne, 19, of Morvant, Precious McCarthy, 17, of San Juan, and Jade Chase, 17, of East Dry River, Port-of-Spain, were also listed in critical condition at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mount Hope, last evening.
Reports state that fire officers from the Chaguanas station, led by FSSO Mahadeosingh and DSO Rennie, had to use the "jaw of life" to free the passengers from Dwarika's Nissan B15 when they responded to the accident, which occurred along the northbound lane of the highway near the Radio Trinidad Transmission station.Inspector Jackman of the Chaguanas Police Station and a party of Central Highway Patrol Division members also visited the scene.
Police suspect that the driver fell asleep and lost control of the vehicle.Chaguanas police are continuing investigations.And in an unrelated accident, 60-year old Marabella resident Arjoon Mattadeen on Saturday succumbed to injuries he sustained in a car crash four days ago in Ste Madeleine.Police said Mattadeen, of Tarouba Road, died at the San Fernando General Hospital.His wife, Sumintra Mattadeen, 55, remains warded at hospital for injuries she sustained in the same crash.
According to a police report, at around 7.10 pm the Mattadeens were driving their Mazda 323 along Naparima Mayaro Road when a Nissan B-15 Sentra driven by Jameel Braithwaite, 22, of Palmyra Village, San Fernando, ran into them. The occupants of the vehicles were taken to hospital and warded.An autopsy is expected to be done on Mattadeen at the San Fernando mortuary today.Yesterday, relatives were too distraught to speak to the T&T Guardian.
PC Flavinney of the Ste Madeleine Police Station is continuing investigations.And in another unrelated incident, St Joseph resident Dominique Pullet was in critical condition at hospital after his car crashed into a ten-wheeler truck in Caroni on Saturday.Police said at around 11.30 am, Pullet, 29, was driving east along Old Southern Main Road in La Paille Village when he crashed head-on into the truck, which was heading in the opposite direction.
He is warded in the Intensive Care Unit of the EWMSC.Investigations are continuing.Friends die in pickup crash Two friends from Couva died after they were killed when their pickup ran off the road in Tacarigua yesterday.Police said around 12.40 pm, Shastri Rampersad and Jason Adams, both 38 and from Milton Village, Couva, were driving downhill along St Michael Road, Tacarigua, when Rampersad lost control of the truck on a sharp bend.
Rampersad's black Nissan Navara ran into a mound of dirt, overturned and ended up on its hood. When police arrived on the scene 15 minutes later, both men were already dead.Investigators said although both men were wearing their seatbelts, they appeared to have suffered serious head injuries from high-speed impact.They were pronounced dead on the scene by a District Medical Officer (DMO) and their bodies were removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where autopsies will be done today.
Before it was towed to the Arouca Police Station, police searched the truck and found a small quantity of marijuana and a large quantity of $100 bills in a small plastic shopping bag.Investigators had not determined where the friends were coming from or their intended destination and were scheduled to interview their families late yesterday.Northern Division police are continuing investigations.