Sascha Wilson
Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
What started as an act of kindness turned deadly for a Moruga man at Gulf City Mall in La Romain yesterday.
Ethan Collymore was assisting a 35-year-old female driver to park her car when she accidentally reversed into him, pinning him under the vehicle near Kappa Drugs.
A security officer who witnessed the tragedy said around 10:40 am Collymore had moved a cone and was standing behind the car to guide the woman into the parking space. Instead of pressing on the brakes, she reportedly pressed the accelerator, causing the vehicle to speed backwards.
The officer recalled, “While moving the cone, he went behind the vehicle to give direction to come back, and apparently she foot, instead of going on the brakes, it went on the clutch or X or whatever, and the vehicle end up going back in high speed and hit the guy, flip up in the air and drop back down on top of him. The driver was bawling, she was so scared.”
With help from others, they took her out of the vehicle and then lifted the vehicle to get to Collymore.
He was bleeding from injuries to his head and complaining that he was in pain. The officer said at one point, Collymore stopped breathing, and medical workers from the nearby drugstore performed CPR and kept him alive until the ambulance arrived.
He was not pleased with the ambulance response. “The ambulance took a lil while to come. Probably if they had come a lil earlier on, he could have survived.”
Guardian Media was told that Collymore was a former security officer/parking attendant employed with Carnival City.
When contacted, Sarah Ragoonath, the mall’s marketing manager, expressed condolences to Collymore’s family. She declined to give any details on the accident as it is under police investigation. However, she said everyone was traumatised by the incident. Meanwhile, the driver who works at Carnival City was questioned by the police but not detained.
San Fernando police are investigating.
