Eleven months after recently reshuffled works and transport minister Fitzgerald Hinds promised safety upgrades to an accident-prone area along the M2 Ring Road, Golconda, a Barrackpore woman was killed instantly in an area now referred as the “death strip.”
Tara Ramsumair, 50, who was travelling to San Fernando to pay a utility bill, died minutes before newly-appointed Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan passed along the road on his way to Debe during a bridge inspection tour.
He is now promising to look into the promises made by Hinds and deal with it urgently. Hinds was appointed Minister of Public Utilities, replacing Ancil Antoine, who was among two ministers fired from Cabinet.
“We wanted to stop but if you realise the fire (officers) and the police took charge. The entourage we have here would have caused a whole traffic pile-up and I don’t think the police would have wanted us.
“I have seen first hand (the accident), a while ago so I will ask the permanent secretary to pull forward whatever promises or decisions that have been taken there and we will definitely be looking at it as a matter of urgency,” Sinanan said.
The site where Ramsumair was killed had over 182 accidents on just four kilometres of road between 2013 and 2015, resulting in ten deaths and 36 victims receiving serious injuries.
Hinds had promised: “We will sanction the milling around the corners to create a system to bring drivers who might be nodding off to alertness and to deal with the slipping problem that some complaints may exist, particular around the curbs.”
Yesterday’s tragedy occurred mere metres from the spot where WPC Rashma Sirjudeen, her son, Rahul, and mother, Una Samkarran were killed when their car slammed into a truck last June.
According to reports, taxi driver Wayne Paul, 55, of Vistabella, had just finished repairing his company’s silver Nissan Almera in Barrackpore and was returning to San Fernando.
He picked up Ramsumair near her GP Trace home and while driving along the M2 Ring Road, they collided with a Mitsubishi L200 pickup driven by Daryl Maharaj.
Police said Maharaj, 30, a labourer, of Barrackpore, was driving in the opposite direction. The car crashed into the drain and police said Ramsumair died instantly.
Paul suffered injuries to his face and chest while Maharaj injured his legs. They were taken to San Fernando General Hospital where they were receiving treatment up to yesterday.