OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The man seen ly­ing on the bon­net of a par­tial­ly sub­merged ve­hi­cle dur­ing yes­ter­day’s se­vere flood­ing along Trantrill Road in Ca­roni is safe af­ter swim­ming away from dan­ger.

The in­ci­dent, cap­tured on video and wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia, showed the mo­torist strand­ed on top of his car af­ter he drove in­to ris­ing flood­wa­ters.

The ve­hi­cle was swept off the road­way by pow­er­ful flood­wa­ter af­ter per­sis­tent rain­fall in­un­dat­ed the area.

When he was not seen lat­er on, there was fear and spec­u­la­tion that the strand­ed mo­torist may have fall­en in­to the flood­wa­ters and may have drowned.

Emer­gency of­fi­cials from the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, along with of­fi­cers from the Fire and Po­lice Ser­vices, launched a co­or­di­nat­ed search to lo­cate the man.

The search be­gan just be­fore mid­day in the area where the man was last seen on top of his ve­hi­cle.

Res­i­dent Bran­don Boodram, who was as­sist­ing in the search for the miss­ing mo­torist, said dri­vers and pedes­tri­ans who were un­fa­mil­iar with the area should avoid it.

“Ear­li­er this morn­ing the wa­ter was high­er. It could be dif­fi­cult for peo­ple who don’t know the road, es­pe­cial­ly since the roads are closed. If the riv­er comes down again, the cur­rent will be strong. Some peo­ple don’t even know how to walk through that safe­ly.”

Fire of­fi­cers lat­er man­aged to see the li­cence plate num­ber of the ve­hi­cle and passed the in­for­ma­tion to po­lice of­fi­cers, who traced the own­er of the car. The search con­clud­ed af­ter 4 pm.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that the mo­torist re­sides at Pasea Road, Tu­na­puna.

A team of of­fi­cers vis­it­ed the man’s home and re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that he swam to safe­ty and lat­er went to a rac­ing pool in Tu­na­puna. He was iden­ti­fied as Zhaenkun Yan.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion dis­as­ter man­age­ment co­or­di­na­tor Ter­rence Max­im urged the pub­lic against dri­ving through heav­i­ly flood­ed ar­eas.

“I’m telling peo­ple: do not ven­ture in­to Trantrill Road. The Ca­roni Basin from St He­le­na straight down to the cre­ma­tion site at Ibis Gar­dens is still re­ceiv­ing wa­ter. Just be­cause it looks clear doesn’t mean it’s safe,” he said.

“Six inch­es of fast-mov­ing wa­ter is enough to sweep a car off the road. Some of these ar­eas drop off as much as six feet be­low the road sur­face. If your ve­hi­cle goes down, res­cue be­comes ex­treme­ly dif­fi­cult.”

Max­im re­in­forced his ap­peal to all cit­i­zens: “Stay out of flood­ed ar­eas. It’s not worth the risk.”

As­sis­tant Chief Fire Of­fi­cer (AC­FO) and head of the North­ern Di­vi­sion, Noel Stew­art, was al­so on the scene with his of­fi­cers as they searched for the miss­ing mo­torist.

“All those who be­lieve they can de­fy the laws of na­ture and take risks with their lives will be in for a harsh sur­prise,” Stew­art warned, as he is­sued a strong ap­peal to the pub­lic amid on­go­ing flood con­di­tions across the coun­try.

“Do not go in­to the flood­wa­ters. The warn­ings have been is­sued by var­i­ous agen­cies—the ODPM and oth­ers. I’m urg­ing every­one, please, stay out of flood­ed ar­eas,” Stew­art added.

He al­so made a heart­felt plea to fam­i­lies: “Speak to your loved ones. Make sure they un­der­stand the dan­ger.”

In Au­gust 2022, An­nan Boysie drowned while try­ing to dri­ve through flood­wa­ters in Princes Town.

In 2023, a man drowned in the flood-swollen drain in Ari­ma while at­tempt­ing to cross it.