Sleep de­pri­va­tion is be­lieved to be the cause of Sat­ur­day morn­ing's dou­ble fa­tal­i­ty near Guaya­mare Riv­er Bridge, off the Uri­ah But­ler High­way.

This is ac­cord­ing to road-safe­ty watch­dog Ar­rive Alive.

Around 4 am, Keron J. An­toine, 35, of 6th Av­enue, Mal­ick, Barataria was dri­ving south along the Uri­ah But­ler High­way when he col­lid­ed with a con­crete bar­ri­er at the Guaya­mare Riv­er Bridge. The car plunged in­to the riv­er. His pas­sen­ger, Saman­tha Beepath, 31, along with the dri­ver was killed.

Ar­rive Alive, in a Face­book post, said it was sus­pect­ed that An­toine had fall­en asleep at the wheel.

“We sus­pect Keron J An­toine, the dri­ver, with his pas­sen­ger Saman­tha Beepath fell asleep when at around 4 am this morn­ing, his ve­hi­cle was pro­ceed­ing south along the UBH when on reach­ing the Guaya­mare Riv­er Bridge he col­lid­ed with same, and the ve­hi­cle plunged in­to the said riv­er!! May they Rest In Peace. Our con­do­lences to their fam­i­lies. So very trag­ic!”

“We ap­peal to all dri­vers and pas­sen­gers - lis­ten to your bod­ies and don’t dri­ve when drowsy or tired. Sleep is con­ta­gious es­pe­cial­ly in the “wee” hours of the morn­ing. As pas­sen­gers we need to stay awake to as­sist our dri­vers,” the road safe­ty group added.

Among those who re­spond­ed were Di­vi­sion­al Fire Of­fi­cer Ram­per­sad and his par­ty to­geth­er with Supt. Gill, In­sp Man­nick and WPC Browne of the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice and Sgt Ho­sein and A/Cpl Kaiz­er of the High­way Pa­trol.