CHARLES KONG SOO

A fe­male British na­tion­al and a top lo­cal chef have been killed and two oth­ers se­ri­ous­ly in­jured af­ter a car ploughed in­to a group of cy­clists along the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way ear­ly Sat­ur­day.

The de­ceased were iden­ti­fied as Joan­na Banks, 40, an em­ploy­ee at BPTT who died at the scene and Joe Brown, ex­ec­u­tive chef at the pop­u­lar Jaf­fa at the Oval restau­rant, who was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex in Mt Hope.

The cy­clists had two po­lice mo­tor­cy­cle out­rid­ers ac­com­pa­ny­ing them. Speak­ing to the Sun­day Guardian, Gary Delzin, one of the ride cap­tains said, “We left the Oval at 6:15 am and reached here around 6.30 am.

“I was in the front of the group. I heard a screech­ing noise.

“When I turned around, I just saw cy­clists fly­ing in the air. It is al­leged the guy (dri­ver) said he got a flat tyre; he just ploughed in­to the group.

“I knew he hit the group very hard. The Fire Ser­vices took the in­jured to Mt Hope hos­pi­tal.”

Re­ports sug­gest Banks may have drowned af­ter she was thrown in­to a ditch at the side of the high­way af­ter a car ran in­to a group of 14 cy­clists head­ing East op­po­site the Beetham Land­fill.

Beetham res­i­dents who came out to as­sist the crash vic­tims did not ini­tial­ly see Banks, be­cause the ditch was al­so full of wa­ter and over­grown with tall grass. Her team­mates were giv­ing most of their at­ten­tion to Brown, who ap­peared to be the most se­ri­ous­ly in­jured un­til some­one spot­ted her body and two of her team­mates pulled her out of the ditch.

Dri­ver Ju­nior McIn­tyre told po­lice he was in­volved in a road traf­fic ac­ci­dent (RTA) with an­oth­er ve­hi­cle, re­sult­ing in a flat tyre, caus­ing him to lose con­trol of his Kia Spec­tra and veer in­to the cy­clists. One of the cy­clists said he heard a screech­ing noise be­fore the car hit the group and tossed many of them in­to the near­by ditch.

Dr Ajit Ku­ruvil­la and Adeli­no Per­reira were al­so tak­en to hos­pi­tal with in­juries, Per­reira in se­ri­ous con­di­tion. Dr Ku­ruvil­la was lat­er trans­ferred to West Shore Med­ical Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal.

The dri­ver was al­so tak­en to hos­pi­tal af­ter pass­ing a breathal­yser test ad­min­is­tered to him at the scene.

McIn­tyre was one of the ac­tors in the 2014 lo­cal movie, Wel­come To War­lock: The Land of the Law­less.

The cy­clists said a prayer for their fall­en com­rades and those in­jured.

The de­ceased were mem­bers of the Slip­stream Cy­cling Club of Port-of-Spain, who were head­ing out on their usu­al Sat­ur­day morn­ing train­ing ride to east Trinidad af­ter leav­ing the Queen's Park Oval.

The ac­ci­dent caused a huge traf­fic pile-up along the east­bound lane of the high­way as the po­lice pre­vent­ed traf­fic from go­ing ahead past the crash site while para­medics at­tend­ed to the in­jured.

There was an­oth­er team of cy­clists head­ing west of the high­way who slowed down to watch the crash site.

Snr Supt Bas­deo Ramd­hanie and Ag ASP Kissoon Bad­loo of the Traf­fic and High­way Pa­trol were on the scene as well as po­lice of­fi­cers from the di­vi­sion and al­so the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion. Sgt Chase from the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion is in charge of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

DMO Dr Fri­day Oduweg­wu or­dered that Banks' body be kept at Den­nie's Fu­ner­al Home in Bel­mont, un­til her au­top­sy to­mor­row. Brown's au­top­sy is al­so ex­pect­ed to be done to­mor­row.