?Relatives of three men who perished in yesterday's incident at the Bailey bridge at Macoya are blaming Government for the tragedy, saying the temporary Bailey bridge should have been replaced months ago. Hours after the tragedy, residents of Latchoos Road, Penal, gathered to mourn the deaths of well-known contractor Rohan "Bobby" Maharaj, 35, and his two friends–Kishore Kumar, 30, and Anil Mohammed, 30. They were killed while heading to the National Quarries for a truck-load of sand, shortly after 5 am yesterday.
Maharaj was the owner of B&B Transport and Stockpile Company who often employed residents of the community. Kumar worked as a self-employed carpenter, while Mohammed, of Goodman Trace, Penal, was a certified electrical inspector. In an interview yesterday, Maharaj's father, Roopnarine Maharaj, said the deaths could have been avoided if the Government had spent money to replace the broken bridge. Roopnarine said several people already had died at the temporary Bailey bridge because it was narrow and risky to passing motorists.
He said Maharaj was a good driver who took his trucks for inspections on a weekly basis. He added: "My son takes good care of his trucks. He has two smaller trucks and two ten-wheelers. Every week he takes them for maintenance. I want to know how that truck could have ignited," Roopnarine said. "He could drive tractors, cranes, excavators, backhoes, overloaders and ten-wheeler trucks. He was always careful on the road. He always taking his time on the road."
He also said the bridge was located in a heavy traffic area. Roopnarine said: "So long the Macoya Bridge broke down and the authorities never bothered to fix it. They wait for something to happen then to do something about the bridge." Maharaj's children–Anipa, six, Adrian, eight, and Narissa, 11, –held each other as they heard of their father's passing. Maharaj's nephew Avinash Maharaj, who won the 2009 Mastana Bahar competition, comforted his cousins Anipa and Narissa.
