RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Bar­rack­pore labour­er Habib John died a hero af­ter sav­ing pen­sion­er Ann Marie Co­dring­ton-Mitchell when a van ploughed in­to them as they walked along Rochard Road, Pe­nal.

He was es­cort­ing her home af­ter spend­ing time at a rel­a­tive’s house. Res­i­dents said this was the sec­ond fa­tal ac­ci­dent to have oc­curred in that spot in re­cent times.

Po­lice said that around 7:10 pm, John, 47, of Rochard Road, and Co­dring­ton-Mitchell, 68, of Phillip Trace, were walk­ing on the east­ern side of the road near Pla­tan­ite Trace when they were struck by a ve­hi­cle.

The ve­hi­cle, a white Kia K2700, was dri­ven by a 33-year-old Pe­nal man.

John was found mo­tion­less at the scene. Co­dring­ton-Mitchell was trans­port­ed to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where she re­mains ward­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion with three bro­ken ribs and a bro­ken arm.

Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Nali­ni Ma­haraj ar­rived at the scene and or­dered John’s body re­moved to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, John’s cousin Shaz­az Ish­mael de­scribed him as a kind and help­ful per­son.

“He was a good guy. Any­one who asked him to do some­thing, he would help out. He used to help peo­ple around the area and didn’t give any trou­ble,” Ish­mael said, adding that John’s last act was one of kind­ness.

“He was go­ing to help her get home and reach her safe in the trace. She used to come here and lime, and when she was ready to go home, he would es­cort her.”

Res­i­dent Er­i­ca Coop­er said the ac­ci­dent hap­pened near a min­i­mart on Rochard Road, where there was a dark spot.

“The van came, and Habib pushed Aun­ty Ann Marie away, so he got more of the lash. The van dragged him a fur­ther dis­tance. The van slipped off the road and hit the drain, and that was how he end­ed up so far down the road,” she said.

Coop­er said John would of­ten spend time with Co­dring­ton-Mitchell, who was a close fam­i­ly friend of his late un­cle. She added that the road has a dip, and on­com­ing ve­hi­cles of­ten hit the spot with se­ri­ous con­se­quences.

Coop­er called on the au­thor­i­ties to in­stall street lights along Rochard Road.

“The pave­ment ends at a cer­tain dis­tance, so you are at risk if you are walk­ing,” she said.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Gow­tam Ma­haraj con­firmed this was the sec­ond fa­tal­i­ty in re­cent times, say­ing Andy Ram­lochan of Pan­cham Trace al­so died af­ter be­ing struck by a car while rid­ing his bi­cy­cle.

“Street light­ing or in­stal­la­tion of new ones has been a long-stand­ing re­quest by res­i­dents of Rochard Road. Coun­cil­lors of the PDRC are work­ing with the MP for Siparia’s of­fice and have com­plet­ed a thor­ough sur­vey and sub­mit­ted it for ac­tion,” Ma­haraj said.

“In some ar­eas, work has al­ready start­ed by T&TEC, and I will lob­by to have this stretch of Rochard Road treat­ed as a high pri­or­i­ty.”