A cy­clist and a young dri­ver died in sep­a­rate crash­es this week­end, leav­ing fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties in mourn­ing.

Ron­nie Rakesh Ra­goo­nanan, 50, of Mc Bean Vil­lage, Cou­va, died on Sat­ur­day af­ter a col­li­sion along the South­ern Main Road.

Lat­er that night, a sep­a­rate crash claimed the life of 20-year-old Isa­iah Teelucks­ingh of Fyz­abad.

Po­lice said that around 3 pm, Ra­goo­nanan was head­ing north on his mo­tor bike when he over­took a ve­hi­cle and crashed head-on in­to a car trav­el­ling south. He was tak­en by am­bu­lance to the Cou­va Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where he died an hour lat­er. Trib­utes from the cy­cling com­mu­ni­ty have poured in, with the Cen­tral Spokes Cy­cling Club re­mem­ber­ing him as a friend and com­pan­ion who shared the trails, the road, and the joy of rid­ing.

Mean­while, Teelucks­ingh died around 9 pm, just af­ter the Corinth Over­pass.

Po­lice said Teelucks­ingh, of Teelucks­ingh Av­enue, Mon De­sir Road, Fyz­abad, was dri­ving a gold Nis­san Ce­firo south­bound when he lost con­trol. The car spun and col­lid­ed with a pur­ple Isuzu flatbed wreck­er that was parked on the shoul­der of the high­way with a sil­ver Nis­san Ti­i­da se­cured on its tray.

At the mo­ment of im­pact, wreck­er op­er­a­tor Kr­ish­na Bal­li­ram, 38, of Gas­par­il­lo, and Ti­i­da dri­ver Ravi Caze­bo, 35, of Wood­land, were work­ing near the truck. Both sus­tained in­juries and were tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Teelucks­ingh was pinned in­side the man­gled ve­hi­cle. Fire of­fi­cers from the Mon Re­pos Fire Sta­tion, led by As­sis­tant Sub-Fire Of­fi­cer Noel, re­moved him, but he died at the scene.

Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tors PC Bhag­wan­deen and PC Haricha­ran processed the site be­fore the three ve­hi­cles were re­moved to the Ste Madeleine Po­lice Sta­tion com­pound. Se­nior of­fi­cers, in­clud­ing In­spec­tor Charles, In­spec­tor Ju­mans­ingh, Sgt Har­riper­sad, Ag Sgt Sukram, and Cpl Roop­nar­ine, al­so vis­it­ed. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.

At the fam­i­ly’s home, rel­a­tives of Teelucks­ingh were too dis­traught to speak.

Hold­ing tight­ly to his fa­ther’s hand, a boy no old­er than five whis­pered, “I miss my broth­er Isa­iah.” He and his fa­ther were walk­ing to a church be­hind their house on Mon De­sir Road, Fyz­abad, hours af­ter the 20-year-old Teelucks­ingh died on Sat­ur­day night in a crash on the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way.

Teelucks­ingh’s fa­ther strug­gled to hold back tears. “We just lost our son, we can’t talk right now,” he said soft­ly, un­able to speak fur­ther be­fore walk­ing away.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, TTPS road safe­ty co­or­di­na­tor Brent Bat­son ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies of both Ra­goo­nanan and Teelucks­ingh, not­ing that the tragedies high­light the risks of un­safe road use.

“We want to re­mind peo­ple to re­main vig­i­lant on the road. There are trag­ic con­se­quences when there is un­safe road use,” Bat­son said.

He urged dri­vers to call po­lice im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter ac­ci­dents, so of­fi­cers can man­age traf­fic and se­cure the scene. “Light­ing is a crit­i­cal is­sue, and hav­ing high-vis­i­bil­i­ty ve­hi­cles and flash­ing lights is crit­i­cal to give dri­vers ad­vanced warn­ing. We want wreck­er dri­vers not to re­move ve­hi­cles on high­ways with­out call­ing the po­lice first so that every­one can be re­moved from the scene safe­ly.”

In­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to both crash­es are con­tin­u­ing.