A fire officer died after being crushed between two vehicles during a freak accident at Tarouba Heights in Marabella yesterday.
Marlon Douglas, 49, a sub-officer assigned to the Couva Fire Station, died at the scene.
The incident occurred shortly after 2 pm while Douglas was repairing his vehicle, a seven-seater, which was parked opposite his home on Dinanath Ramnarine Drive.
Eyewitnesses said the vehicle started to roll but Douglas could not move out of the way because his hand was pinned near the front grille of the vehicle.
Michael Maloney, who was doing tiling work at a nearby house, said he just happened to look through a window and saw Douglas being dragged. With Douglas struggling to free his hand, the vehicle rolled for about 25 feet.
Maloney recalled, “I see the van dragging the man going down the hill. He hand like it was in the bonnet and like he trying to pull out his hand and it (van) hit the drain. When the van hit the drain it roll down and it end up bounce up a next vehicle that was park up there.”
Maloney said the man who owned the car was working with him.
“Everything happen so fast. We could not help him,” he added. Maloney said the front gate of the property was locked so they had to jump over a wall.
When they ran to the vehicles, he said, “We mash down the handbrakes (in the seven-seater) because he handbrakes wasn’t up and we try to move back the vehicle to let we see if we could unpin him. By the time we pull him out he was done going.”
Maloney said Douglas was between the two vehicles but his head was by the tyre and he was gasping for breath. He died at the scene. Douglas’ wife Karlene was at work when she got the tragic news. She said her husband was supposed to work the night shift. She and Douglas had two children, aged 15 and 13.
Officers of the Mon Repos Fire Station and Mon Repos Police Station were at the scene and investigations are continuing.