Relatives of two friends who lost their lives after a horrific accident in San Fernando over the weekend, are calling on the authorities to maintain and install cable barriers along the nation’s highways.
Grieving relatives of Sachin Teeluckdharry, 27, and Ryan Ramnanan, 27, believe that if their were barrier in the area where the pick-up they were travelling in veered off the roadway, their lives may have been saved.
The men were reported missing on Sunday when they failed to return home after liming in Port-of-Spain. Hours later, the Hunter’s Search and Rescue Team found the wrecked van overturned in the Cipero Road River, near the C3 Mall in Ste Madeleine.
Relatives were uncertain how the van veered off the Solomon Hochoy Highway and plunged into the river.
When Guardian Media visited Sachin’s home in Penal yesterday, his father Bobby Teeluckdharry was in tears. Ryan’s father Ramesh Ramnanan and his brother were also there.
Teeluckdharry said he messaged his son at 1.15 am and he (his son) told him he would let him know when he arrived home. At 4.20 am, he said he got worried and tried calling them. “Sachin and his (Ryan’s) phone went straight to voice mail.”
He said he called their other friend but didn’t get through so he decided to go in search of them.
While searching in Debe, he said their friend returned his call. He said he passed them on the highway near Gasparillo at 3.30 am. After searching for a while, he reported them missing at the Penal Police Station.
As the owner of several businesses, Teeluckdharry feared that his son had been kidnapped. Hours later, however, the Vallence Rambharat-led Hunters Search and Rescue team found the wrecked vehicle in the river with their bodies inside.
Teeluckdharry said the van belonged to his son, but Ryan was driving.
“I thought it was a kidnapping. As a business owner in Trinidad right now, yes you have to be sceptical.”
He recalled that two and half months ago, bandits broke into his business place and stole over $300,000 in items, including cigarettes and alcohol.
“I thought it may have been affiliated with it,” he admitted.
He described Ryan and Sachin as responsible young men.
“I always tell them no matter where in Trinidad they are, if you know you can’t make to drive, call me. I will come to pick you up and I also have my drivers, they will go and pick them up.”
Grateful to the Hunters Team for locating them so quickly, he said he believed the police would have taken a longer time to find them. Noting that at the site of the accident, the cable barriers were broken down, he said he felt if they were in good order, the vehicle may not have plummeted off the highway and they may have survived.
“They (authorities) need to fix and maintain them. That helps. That saves lives,” Teeluckdharry said.
Ryan’s father agreed that cable barriers save lives and ought to be maintained and installed along the highways.
Ramnanan said he did not know if his son was driving, but if he were, he dismissed speculation that his son was intoxicated.
“He drinks one or two lil beer but not to get drunk,” he added.
He recalled that he last saw Ryan, a labourer with Wellfab Ltd, around 8.30 pm on Saturday after he prepared dinner for his girlfriend.
When he got up that morning to go to the Siparia market, he thought Ryan was at Sachin’s home, but when he returned home around midday, he heard they were missing. He also feared that they had been kidnapped and went to the police station.
He said Sachin and Ryan had been friends for 12 years and shared a brotherly bond.
“Ryan is a nice jolly person, always smiling. Don’t give trouble,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yousuf Hosein who has been lobbying for safety measures along the nation’s highway since he was critically injured in 2012, after a two-tonne truck crossed the median near Gasparillo and landed on top of his car, renewed his call yesterday.
Holding up a placard with enlarged photos of his crash and a placard with the words Cable Barriers Save Lives, Hosein said Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan had indicated that cable barriers were ineffective and they would use guard rails.
“He has failed in his job. He has failed to provide road safety measures for the safety of the citizens on the highway to prevent the loss of lives and limbs of citizens on the highway.”
In February, Minister in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Richie Sookahi, indicated that they had already developed and were implementing a guard rail programme to replace cable barriers. The minister noted that phase one of the project consisted of three packages, two in the Caroni area and one in Victoria West, due to be completed by September and October.
Attempts to reach Sookhai and Sinanan were unsuccessful yesterday.
