RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Me­chan­ic Anil Singh died af­ter his van plunged in­to a land­slip in Princes Town. De­spite suf­fer­ing se­vere in­juries, he made the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice by break­ing the wind­shield of the crashed van to save his trapped friends.

Singh went in­to dis­tress while wait­ing two hours for an am­bu­lance and died at the Princes Town Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty.

His sis­ter, Anel­la Sawh, rushed him to the hos­pi­tal af­ter the am­bu­lance failed to ar­rive.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Sawh said Singh, a fa­ther of three, had gone to col­lect mon­ey with two friends. Around 4 pm yes­ter­day, he stopped to uri­nate off Mandin­go Road, when the land be­neath his parked van gave way.

“There was no sign of a de­pres­sion,” Sawh ex­plained. “He didn’t no­tice the land­slide. The van’s wheels were on the edge. When he came out, the ground start­ed to sink. His friends didn’t have time to get out. The van hit Anil, pitch­ing him down the hill be­fore it over­turned.”

Vil­lagers rushed to as­sist. Sawh said Singh was in­jured but still asked his friends if they were safe.

“He said, ‘Blind­ey, you OK?’ His friend was pinned, and my broth­er asked him to switch off the van. Then Anil burst the wind­shield to get him out," she re­vealed.

Vil­lagers helped Singh climb back up the hill, but he was strug­gling to breathe.

“He had heart and breath­ing prob­lems. They gave him his pump, but he was gasp­ing for air. He be­came rest­less and went in and out of con­scious­ness,” Sawh said.

A re­tired nurse per­formed CPR, but Singh’s con­di­tion wors­ened.

“They called me, say­ing the am­bu­lance hadn’t ar­rived, and he was bleed­ing from his mouth. I took him to the hos­pi­tal, but he start­ed slip­ping away on the way,” Sawh re­count­ed.

Doc­tors at the fa­cil­i­ty tried to re­vive Singh, but he was lat­er pro­nounced dead. Singh's fu­ner­al is sched­uled for Tues­day. Princes Town po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.