Kevon Felmine

It was a mo­torist's night­mare in south Trinidad yes­ter­day as grid­lock traf­fic along the Solomon Ho­choy High­way snaked its way from Tarou­ba to San Fer­nan­do, fol­low­ing an ac­ci­dent which claimed the life of a Princes Town me­chan­ic dur­ing mid-af­ter­noon rush-hour.

Mo­torists re­mained stuck for more than five hours as po­lice and fire of­fi­cers su­per­vised the re­moval of a trail­er-truck which blocked off a por­tion of the north-bound lane.

Me­chan­ic Ish­mael Mo­hammed, 37, of Iere Vil­lage Branch Road, was crushed to death by a Mit­subishi Sportero while do­ing re­pairs to the stalled truck on the shoul­der of the high­way.

At least three oth­er peo­ple were ward­ed in se­ri­ous con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal af­ter they were cat­a­pult­ed from the scene up­on im­pact in­to bush­es off the high­way, near the Tarou­ba In­ter­change.

The im­pact was so in­tense the parked truck shift­ed.

It was the sec­ond road fa­tal­i­ty yes­ter­day as Cou­va busi­ness­man Kevin Lag­gan died when his Nis­san Navara slammed in­to a wall in Ch­agua­nas.

Lag­gan, 25, an elec­tri­cal and elec­tron­ic en­gi­neer­ing tech­ni­cian stu­dent at the School of Busi­ness and Com­put­er Sci­ence (SBCS), died im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter his Nis­san Navara pick-up crashed in­to a util­i­ty pole in Ed­in­burgh, Ch­agua­nas.

Al­though Lag­gan's death did not cause much traf­fic, the sec­ond fa­tal­i­ty left hun­dreds of peo­ple leav­ing work, strand­ed in al­most stand-still traf­fic. Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, truck dri­ver Wayne Ram­nar­ine was trans­port­ing emp­ty bot­tles to Carib Brew­ery at Champs Fleurs when the wheels of the trail­er be­gan to lock. He parked on the shoul­der of the high­way and called for help.

Lat­er on, the own­er of the truck, Ram­chan Mat­loo, 50, his wife, Sylvia, 45 and daugh­ter, Asha Mat­loo, 23, all of Friend­ship Vil­lage, ar­rived with Mo­hammed and an­oth­er me­chan­ic, Richard Ram­lo­gan, 35, of Princes Town.

Ram­nar­ine said he was al­so sit­ting un­der the trail­er, while Mo­hammed was tight­en­ing the wheel's hub. Ram­lo­gan, who was as­sist­ing Mo­hammed was stand­ing near the wheel and the Mat­loos were stand­ing at the side.

Re­ports stat­ed that around 1.30 pm, a Mit­subishi Sportero, dri­ven by Cadel Ra­j­paul, slammed in­to them be­fore hit­ting the truck. Mo­hammed was crushed by the wheel while Ram­chan suf­fered gash­es to the hand, chest and face.

His wife, Sylvia, suf­fered a bro­ken leg and Ram­lo­gan has sev­er­al bro­ken bones. Ra­j­paul, who sus­tain mi­nor in­juries, was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal for treat­ment.

"All I saw was a van com­ing to­wards us and every­body was fly­ing down the hill. It hap­pened with­in a mat­ter of sec­onds," Asha said af­ter es­cap­ing with­out in­juries. She sat in a daze at the scene yes­ter­day.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors were told the in­ci­dent ac­tu­al­ly start­ed when Ra­j­paul hit a Toy­ota Corol­la dri­ven by Ram­saran Nages­sar from be­hind and lost con­trol of his ve­hi­cle. How­ev­er, wit­ness­es said an­oth­er ve­hi­cle had hit Ra­j­paul's from be­hind but drove off.

Busi­ness­man killed

In the ear­li­er fa­tal­i­ty, Lag­gan, 25, an elec­tri­cal and elec­tron­ic en­gi­neer­ing tech­ni­cian stu­dent at the School of Busi­ness and Com­put­er Sci­ence (SBCS), died im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter his Nis­san Navara pick-up crashed in­to a util­i­ty pole in Ed­in­burgh, Ch­agua­nas.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Lag­gan was dri­ving south­ward along the Old South­ern Main Road around 5 am on his way home. On near­ing Sug­ar­cane Av­enue, he sud­den­ly swerved off the road and crashed in­to a util­i­ty pole and then a wall.

Ch­agua­nas po­lice were con­tact­ed by passers­by and re­spond­ed with the Emer­gency Health Ser­vices but Lag­gan had al­ready died.

At his Ca­nary Cres­cent, Cou­va, home yes­ter­day, his sis­ter, Ra­nee Lag­gan, 27, said he was plan­ning to at­tend a friend's wed­ding to­mor­row and left home around 9.30 pm to meet oth­er friends who ar­rived in the coun­try from abroad.

She said they were all lim­ing at Med­ford Grill when he left them to re­turn home so he could pre­pare to open their Pearl's Roti Shop at Dow Vil­lage, Cal­i­for­nia.

With his death, she said she has lost her on­ly sib­ling as her par­ents on­ly had two chil­dren.

"He was a good per­son. There were prob­lems at times like with any oth­er per­son but he was al­ways there for my moth­er, run­ning the shop with her, foot-to-foot with her. It was just two of us, me and my broth­er. Now I no longer have a broth­er or a sib­ling.

"He liked to lime with his friends. He was a very pop­u­lar per­son and if you asked any­body about Kevin Lag­gan, they would know him. There was no where I could have gone with my broth­er and peo­ple did not know him."

Al­though Lag­gan was killed im­me­di­ate­ly, his pick-up was not to­talled from the crash. An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be done to­mor­row.

The road fa­tal­i­ty toll now stands at 123, com­pared to 142, for the com­pa­ra­ble pe­ri­od last year.

'Speed, reck­less­driv­ing in­volvedin both ac­ci­dents'

Co-or­di­na­tor of the Road Safe­ty Project, Brent Bat­son, says the TTPS con­tin­ues to ap­peal to road users to dri­ve safe­ly, es­pe­cial­ly as most peo­ple are look­ing for­ward to spend­ing the Christ­mas hol­i­days with their fam­i­lies.

Bat­son said both ac­ci­dents were in­dica­tive of mo­torists' con­tin­ued use of speed, adding that reck­less­ness con­tin­ues to plague the road­ways.

He added: "When you look at the types of ac­ci­dents that caused the two road deaths that oc­curred to­day, clear­ly it shows the lev­el of risk-tak­ing that dri­vers seem to have in­cul­cat­ed as part of their nor­mal lev­el of reck­less dri­ving. In the fa­tal­i­ty on the high­way, the pick-up's dri­ver slammed di­rect­ly in­to a sta­tionery ob­ject.

"It begs to ques­tion what the dri­ver was look­ing at and how come he did not a see what was in front of him. One of the key in­gre­di­ents com­ing out of that re­port is reck­less speed­ing.

"To shift a truck re­quires a lot of en­er­gy and it al­so dis­plays the dri­ver's lack of scan­ning, way in ad­vance of their traf­fic man­age­ment.

"In the sec­ond ac­ci­dent, for the dri­ver to hit a light pole to be killed up­on im­pact, it in­volves ex­ces­sive speed­ing. To lose loved ones on the road at a time when most fam­i­lies would look for­ward to be­ing to­geth­er, this is some­thing the TTPS wish­es no fam­i­ly has to ex­pe­ri­ence for the rest of this year.

"We con­tin­ue to ap­peal to all road users to obey the high­way code, the speed lim­it and prac­tise safe and cour­te­ous dri­ving," Bat­son added.