Ke­jan Haynes

Lead Ed­i­tor-News­gath­er­ing

ke­jan.haynes@guardian.co.tt

The Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion is in­ten­si­fy­ing its na­tion­al road safe­ty agen­da fol­low­ing a string of week­end fa­tal­i­ties, with Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our urg­ing all road users to take per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pre­vent fur­ther loss of life.

The Min­istry said it was strength­en­ing the work of the Li­cens­ing Di­vi­sion, Traf­fic War­den Di­vi­sion, and Traf­fic Man­age­ment Unit to en­sure greater dis­ci­pline on the roads.

Dri­vers, pedes­tri­ans, cy­clists, and mo­tor­cy­clists were urged to fol­low safe­ty reg­u­la­tions, in­clud­ing prop­er use of pedes­tri­an cross­ings, hel­met-wear­ing, and avoid­ing reck­less or dis­tract­ed dri­ving.

On Sat­ur­day, 20-year-old Isa­iah Teelucks­ingh of Fyz­abad died when his Nis­san Ce­firo crashed in­to a wreck­er on the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way near the Army Base around 8.35 pm. Two oth­er dri­vers were in­jured.

Ear­li­er that day, 78-year-old Jim­my Baal of Ca­paro died af­ter be­ing struck by a Mit­subishi Pa­jero on farm­land in Tal­paro. He had been hold­ing his three-year-old grand­son, who re­mains ward­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion.

In a sep­a­rate crash in Cou­va, 50-year-old mo­tor­cy­clist Rakesh Ra­goo­nanan of Mc Bean died af­ter a col­li­sion with a Nis­san Cube along the South­ern Main Road.

Za­k­our ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed, say­ing each death un­der­scored “the ur­gent need for greater dis­ci­pline, cau­tion, and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.”

In­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to all three in­ci­dents are con­tin­u­ing.