Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

A trip to watch the "Balls of Fire" crick­et match turned trag­ic yes­ter­day when three peo­ple, in­clud­ing two chil­dren, died in a hor­rif­ic two-ve­hi­cle crash on the slip­pery South Trunk Road. The ac­ci­dent oc­curred around 1 pm close to the Shore of Peace at Mos­qui­to Creek. The vic­tims have been iden­ti­fied as Ra­jesh Ram­nar­ine, 37, of Ralph Nar­ine Trace, South Oropouche; Sachin Ma­haraj, 9, of St Mary's Vil­lage, South Oropouche; and Sachin Singh, 12, of Berridge Trace, South Oropouche.

Among the in­jured were Ian Singh, Shiv­anand Singh, Hen­ry Lange, Shi­va Lange, Shiv­anand Lange, Ra­jesh Ram­lo­gan, Mahin­dra Ma­haraj, Roger Ramkissoon and three-year-old Dar­shan Ma­haraj. Oth­er ca­su­al­ties Videsh Ram­saran, 21, and van dri­ver Bal­ram Heer­alal, 46, of Mon De­sir Road, South Oropouche, were said to be fight­ing for their lives up to late last night at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. Doc­tors worked round the clock to sta­b­lise the ac­ci­dent vic­tims, two of whom were said to be on life sup­port sys­tems at the In­ten­sive Care Unit.

Po­lice said at least five peo­ple were crit­i­cal hav­ing sus­tained mas­sive head and chest in­juries, bro­ken legs and in­ter­nal in­juries. Scores of peo­ple aban­doned their cars and ran to ren­der as­sis­tance. Po­lice re­port states Heer­alal was dri­ving his pan­el van east along the South Trunk Road when a Jusam­co dump truck, dri­ven by Bal­ton Ban­well, sud­den­ly swerved and slammed in­to the van. An eye­wit­ness said Heer­alal saw the truck com­ing his way and pulled aside. How­ev­er, the truck crossed lanes and rammed the right side of the pan­el van, caus­ing it to skid to the edge of the road. The back door was thrown open toss­ing the oc­cu­pants in­to the wa­ters of the Gulf of Paria.

Wit­ness Dhanan Gun­ness said he and his fa­ther Di­anand quick­ly ran out to help. "Four guys were in the sea and oth­ers were un­con­scious and bleed­ing in the van. One of the boys was pinned. "We had to hold up the seat so that he would not fall out," Gun­ness re­called. He said they im­me­di­ate­ly called in the Emer­gency Health Ser­vice and five am­bu­lances ar­rived. By that time, Gun­ness and oth­er passers-by had al­ready pulled four peo­ple out of the wa­ter. Sachin Singh and Sachin Ma­haraj died on the spot. Both were sit­ting at the back of the van.

Heer­alal's wife, Dollin ar­rived short­ly and be­gan scream­ing when she saw the bod­ies. She was led away by po­lice. Sev­er­al by­standers al­so chas­tised the truck dri­ver. How­ev­er, Ban­well said he got a bad dri­ve from an on-com­ing mo­torist. "I tried to stop the truck from hit­ting the car. I pulled to the left but I went too much on the edge and when I pulled, I just hit the pan­el van," he cried. Nurs­ing a swollen lip, Ban­well said sad­ly: "I did not mean to kill any­body." The bod­ies were re­moved from the scene around 2 pm. Au­top­sies are sched­uled for to­mor­row. ASP Baldeo, In­sp Seep­er­sad, Cpl Singh and Ag Sgt Vi­jai Ramd­hanie are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

...Three die on PBR

Mean­while, in a sep­a­rate in­ci­dent yes­ter­day, a sol­dier who worked with the Spe­cial An­ti-Crime Unit (Sautt) was one of three peo­ple killed in a ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dent on the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing. Staff sergeant Regi­nald West, Ter­ry King and Roger Her­cules died on the spot in the vicin­i­ty of the Co­conut Grow­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion around 5.30 am. West was dri­ving a Tus­con SUV and al­leged­ly fell asleep be­hind the while when he col­lid­ed with King's Mit­subishi Lancer. West was head­ing to his home on Mar­li Street in Port-of-Spain, while King, 30, and Her­cules, 29, who were re­turn­ing from a par­ty at the Zen night club, were go­ing to their homes in Chi­napoo and Mor­vant, re­spec­tive­ly.

West, who works with the Sec­ond Bat­tal­ion at the De­fence Force, and the two men died on the spot. Of­fi­cers of the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. Yes­ter­day, Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice James Philbert plead­ed with mo­torists to ex­er­cise cau­tion while dri­ving, obey the traf­fic laws and de­sist from dri­ving and talk­ing on cell phones. "We are mak­ing the same plea all the time...peo­ple are con­sum­ing al­co­hol in ex­cess and dri­ving."

–Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly