RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A Siparia fam­i­ly is griev­ing the sud­den death of a re­tiree who was killed in a crash just hours af­ter telling rel­a­tives he was head­ing to a steel­pan event in Point Fortin for Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions.

Dead is 61-year-old Stephen Delpino of Coo­ra Road, Sen­non Vil­lage, Siparia.

Po­lice said the fa­tal ac­ci­dent oc­curred around 3.20 am on Sun­day along the south­bound lane of the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way in Gas­par­il­lo. Of­fi­cers re­spond­ing to a re­port of a crash found a sil­ver Nis­san Ti­i­da in a ditch off the road­way, ex­ten­sive­ly dam­aged. Delpino, who was alone in the ve­hi­cle, was found mo­tion­less and un­re­spon­sive.

Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Balkissoon lat­er pro­nounced him dead at the scene. His body was re­moved to the San Fer­nan­do Mor­tu­ary as crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors processed the area.

At the fam­i­ly’s home in Coo­ra Road, Siparia, rel­a­tives gath­ered to mourn the man they de­scribed as warm, friend­ly and well-loved.

His niece, Kim­ber­ly Delpino, said he had left home hours ear­li­er af­ter say­ing he would at­tend a pan event in Point Fortin.

She said the fam­i­ly was left in shock af­ter re­ceiv­ing news of his death ear­ly Sun­day morn­ing.

“I see my phone ring­ing and ring­ing, and I didn’t an­swer be­cause I didn’t know the num­ber,” she re­called. “When I fi­nal­ly an­swered, the per­son asked if I knew Stephen Delpino and said he was call­ing from the po­lice sta­tion … the of­fi­cer said my un­cle got in­to an ac­ci­dent and passed away. I thought it was a prank.”

She said she im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed his daugh­ter, Akeeme Delpino, to con­firm the news.

“He told her he was go­ing by a pan in Point,” she said, adding that the fam­i­ly is still try­ing to un­der­stand what led to the crash.

De­scrib­ing her un­cle as kind and car­ing, Kim­ber­ly said his death has left a deep void.

“My un­cle was the most lov­ing per­son. Any­body could tell you that. He moved good with every­body,” she said.

She added that Delpino had been prepar­ing to trav­el abroad in the com­ing days to vis­it rel­a­tives.

“He was sup­posed to trav­el next week … his broth­er sent a tick­et for him. We were look­ing for­ward to that,” she said.

In­stead, the fam­i­ly is now com­ing to terms with an un­ex­pect­ed loss.

Po­lice said an au­top­sy will be per­formed to­day as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the crash.