An elderly man was dismembered yesterday after being hit by a car while crossing the Churchill -Roosevelt Highway near the El Socorro Industrial Estate, San Juan.The accident caused a massive pile-up which kept motorists in traffic for hours, resulting in a the loss of several hours of human resource time for businesses.
According to police reports, around 5.15 am Ramjit Ramesar was attempting to cross the west-bound lane of the highway, approximately 50 metres away from the walkover, when he was hit by a Nissan B15.The force of the impact severed both his legs and one of his feet, while the rest of his body was lodged in the windshield of the driver's car.
The accident caused a major traffic jam heading into the city, forcing the authorities to open the Priority Bus Route (PBR) from 8 am to 10 am to all traffic heading west. Despite this, traffic was still almost at a standstill up to 11 am.Contacted yesterday, director of the National Operations Centre Garvin Heera said the jam was caused by motorists who wanted to use the PBR despite the highway being cleared some two hours after the accident.
He said the vehicle involved and three others which were also involved in a minor accident following the fatal accident, were removed and Ramesar's body taken to the Port-of-Spain mortuary within two hours.Police were dispatched to help direct traffic but some motorists took advantage of the opened PBR well past the allocated time, causing further traffic, Heera said.Coupled with that were the motorists who slowed down to look and take pictures of the accident scene.
So far this year, nine people have died as a result of vehicular accidents. The last three fatalities were pedestrians.According to the road safety watch group, Arrive Alive, in 2014 164 people died in 146 road traffic accidents and 39 were pedestrians.