RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A planned hike among three friends end­ed in death yes­ter­day when the car in which they were trav­el­ling crashed, killing two of them.

The bod­ies of Branj Smith, 18, of Point Lisas Gar­dens and An­tho­ny Grant, 35, of San Fer­nan­do were dis­mem­bered af­ter they were thrown out of the blue Nis­san which ran off the crashed in­to a con­crete cul­vert on the cor­ner of the north­bound lane of the Uri­ah But­ler High­way and Bir­jah Road. 

The car flipped sev­er­al times throw­ing Smith and Grant out.

Po­lice sus­pect that they were not wear­ing their seat­belts. Smith was a stu­dent of the Cara­pichaima West Sec­ondary School. 

Police speak to the survivors of the accident which took place after the Gasparillo Flyover on the North bound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

The dri­ver Shawn Mar­tin, 24, of Cou­va, sur­vived the hor­rif­ic crash and re­mains ward­ed in a se­ri­ous con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

 Grant’s moth­er Joy Vin­cent said peo­ple came to her home around 11 am with the hor­rif­ic news of her son’s death. She said he did not live with her and she was un­cer­tain where he was go­ing.

But po­lice said they were head­ing to north Trinidad to go on a hike. Rel­a­tives of Smith de­clined to com­ment say­ing they were too dis­traught to speak.

Just hours af­ter this crash, four oth­er friends es­caped in­jury when their BMW crashed on the north­bound car­riage­way of the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way. Po­lice said the dri­ver Kra­gan Ramd­hanie was in com­pa­ny with three oth­ers when he lost con­trol.

Driver Kragan Ramdhanie (grey vest) and another occupant walk past the crashed vehicle he was driving on the northbound lane of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway yesterday.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

Ramd­hanie said he got a bad dri­ve from an on­com­ing mo­torist and pulled to the right side, knock­ing in­to the bar­ri­ers. He de­clined fur­ther com­ment. Two women who were with him suf­fered mi­nor skin in­juries. They too de­clined com­ment. 

Po­lice are call­ing on the pub­lic to ex­er­cise cau­tion on the road say­ing there are too many re­ports of speed vi­o­la­tions.

Anthony Grant

Branj Smith

Shirley Bahadur