Senior Reporter
anna-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
Eight-year-old Gideon Smart was crushed to death yesterday, after a runaway truck crashed into his family’s home at Savannah Road, Arouca.
Homeowner Martin Gardner and his neighbours ran out of their houses around 3 pm, after hearing a loud crashing sound. When they got outside, they realised an open-tray truck loaded with concrete bricks and other building supplies had rammed into Gardner’s home.
However, Gardner soon heard the faint cries of Smart, his stepson, trapped beneath the wreckage.
Gardner said he called out to the boy’s mother, Hailey, and other siblings to come and help, but all they could do was watch on helplessly as the boy struggled for breath and eventually died under the mangled wreckage.
Another relative estimated that Smart, who sustained severe head injuries, “did not even last five minutes”.
Smart was reportedly sitting on an exercise bike which had been positioned under Gardner’s house, with his back towards the road, when the truck slammed into him.
His mother, Hailey, was overcome by grief when the emergency crew arrived to remove the body from the wreckage and eventually went inside.
Smart’s step-grandfather, Albert Gardner, recalled that Smart and his elder brother had rushed outside to help him to offload his car moments before the fatal incident.
“As soon as I pull up, he rush up, asking ‘Granpa, Granpa ... you have anything to take out?’”
He said Smart was very “willing”, “playful” and “full of life”.
“He always looking to assist yuh in anything yuh doing,” Gardner (A) said.
However, he said he believed the family was spared a double tragedy, as Smart’s elder brother barely managed to escape.
Gardner (A) said Smart’s elder brother, who is 11 years old, had shouted to warn him about the truck, which had been hurtling down the steep hill, but it was too late for him to escape.
He said, “The next brother get away because both of them was outside. Why he didn’t get away was because he father have a exercise machine and he always on that ... and the both of them were outside, and he was on the machine, so his back was turned. The next one was outside, and like he see what was taking place and run and called him, but he didn’t have time to move cause he on the machine.”
Residents of Savannah Road looked on with tears in their eyes as the truck was eventually pulled from under Gardner’s house.
The driver of the truck had gone into the community to drop off building supplies for a resident living higher up the hillside moments before the incident.
The driver was eventually arrested and taken into custody by officers from the Tunapuna Police Station.
Although residents declined to give their names, everyone agreed it was a tragedy, and with days to go before the new year, the community said it would disrupt their intended celebrations.
Gardner said for his family, it meant they would have no New Year’s or Carnival or holidays, as they will struggle to accept the loss of “one of the most vibrant children around”.
One woman was also heard scolding her son, who appeared to be around Smart’s age. “Is only yesterday (Sunday) I bouffing you for playing in the road ... I tired talking to you. I hope you learn from this and listen.”
Investigations are continuing into the incident.
