It was a motorist’s nightmare in south Trinidad yesterday as gridlock traffic along the Solomon Hochoy Highway snaked its way from Tarouba to San Fernando, following an accident which claimed the life of a Princes Town mechanic during mid-afternoon rush-hour.
Motorists remained stuck for more than five hours as police and fire officers supervised the removal of a trailer-truck which blocked off a portion of the north-bound lane.
Mechanic Ishmael Mohammed, 37, of Iere Village Branch Road, was crushed to death by a Mitsubishi Sportero while doing repairs to the stalled truck on the shoulder of the highway.
At least three other people were warded in serious condition at the San Fernando General Hospital after they were catapulted from the scene upon impact into bushes off the highway, near the Tarouba Interchange.
The impact was so intense the parked truck shifted.
It was the second road fatality yesterday as Couva businessman Kevin Laggan died when his Nissan Navara slammed into a wall in Chaguanas.
Laggan, 25, an electrical and electronic engineering technician student at the School of Business and Computer Science (SBCS), died immediately after his Nissan Navara pick-up crashed into a utility pole in Edinburgh, Chaguanas.
Although Laggan’s death did not cause much traffic, the second fatality left hundreds of people leaving work, stranded in almost stand-still traffic. According to reports, truck driver Wayne Ramnarine was transporting empty bottles to Carib Brewery at Champs Fleurs when the wheels of the trailer began to lock. He parked on the shoulder of the highway and called for help.
Later on, the owner of the truck, Ramchan Matloo, 50, his wife, Sylvia, 45 and daughter, Asha Matloo, 23, all of Friendship Village, arrived with Mohammed and another mechanic, Richard Ramlogan, 35, of Princes Town.
Ramnarine said he was also sitting under the trailer, while Mohammed was tightening the wheel’s hub. Ramlogan, who was assisting Mohammed was standing near the wheel and the Matloos were standing at the side.
Reports stated that around 1.30 pm, a Mitsubishi Sportero, driven by Cadel Rajpaul, slammed into them before hitting the truck. Mohammed was crushed by the wheel while Ramchan suffered gashes to the hand, chest and face.
His wife, Sylvia, suffered a broken leg and Ramlogan has several broken bones. Rajpaul, who sustain minor injuries, was taken to the hospital for treatment.
“All I saw was a van coming towards us and everybody was flying down the hill. It happened within a matter of seconds,” Asha said after escaping without injuries. She sat in a daze at the scene yesterday.
Investigators were told the incident actually started when Rajpaul hit a Toyota Corolla driven by Ramsaran Nagessar from behind and lost control of his vehicle. However, witnesses said another vehicle had hit Rajpaul’s from behind but drove off.
Businessman killed
In the earlier fatality, Laggan, 25, an electrical and electronic engineering technician student at the School of Business and Computer Science (SBCS), died immediately after his Nissan Navara pick-up crashed into a utility pole in Edinburgh, Chaguanas.
According to reports, Laggan was driving southward along the Old Southern Main Road around 5 am on his way home. On nearing Sugarcane Avenue, he suddenly swerved off the road and crashed into a utility pole and then a wall.
Chaguanas police were contacted by passersby and responded with the Emergency Health Services but Laggan had already died.
At his Canary Crescent, Couva, home yesterday, his sister, Ranee Laggan, 27, said he was planning to attend a friend’s wedding tomorrow and left home around 9.30 pm to meet other friends who arrived in the country from abroad.
She said they were all liming at Medford Grill when he left them to return home so he could prepare to open their Pearl’s Roti Shop at Dow Village, California.
With his death, she said she has lost her only sibling as her parents only had two children.
“He was a good person. There were problems at times like with any other person but he was always there for my mother, running the shop with her, foot-to-foot with her. It was just two of us, me and my brother. Now I no longer have a brother or a sibling.
“He liked to lime with his friends. He was a very popular person and if you asked anybody about Kevin Laggan, they would know him. There was no where I could have gone with my brother and people did not know him.”
Although Laggan was killed immediately, his pick-up was not totalled from the crash. An autopsy is expected to be done tomorrow.
The road fatality toll now stands at 123, compared to 142, for the comparable period last year.
‘Speed, reckless driving involved in both accidents’
Co-ordinator of the Road Safety Project, Brent Batson, says the TTPS continues to appeal to road users to drive safely, especially as most people are looking forward to spending the Christmas holidays with their families.
Batson said both accidents were indicative of motorists’ continued use of speed, adding that recklessness continues to plague the roadways.
He added: “When you look at the types of accidents that caused the two road deaths that occurred today, clearly it shows the level of risk-taking that drivers seem to have inculcated as part of their normal level of reckless driving. In the fatality on the highway, the pick-up’s driver slammed directly into a stationery object.
“It begs to question what the driver was looking at and how come he did not a see what was in front of him. One of the key ingredients coming out of that report is reckless speeding.
“To shift a truck requires a lot of energy and it also displays the driver’s lack of scanning, way in advance of their traffic management.
“In the second accident, for the driver to hit a light pole to be killed upon impact, it involves excessive speeding. To lose loved ones on the road at a time when most families would look forward to being together, this is something the TTPS wishes no family has to experience for the rest of this year.
“We continue to appeal to all road users to obey the highway code, the speed limit and practise safe and courteous driving,” Batson added.