Bus Route crash cripples cop

CONSTABLE Miguel Lezama, one of three Anti-Kidnapping Squad officers injured in a crash at the Macoya junction and Priority Bus Route intersection on Wednesday has been paralysed from his neck down. Of the three other officers involved in the accident, Sheldon Narine suffered a broken collar bone, Lenny Dowlat suffered a broken right hand and Prakash Mathura escaped with only bruises.

The four officers were at the time heading west along the PBR to a shootout scene on the Lady Young Road, Morvant, where two suspected kidnappers were shot dead by other AKS members, when they received a “bad drive” from a maxi-taxi driver causing them to overturn and end up in a drain. Aided by other drivers, the injured cops were rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. However, because of the protest by North West Regional Health Authority employees, the lawmen had to be transferred to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where they were treated and where Lezama remains warded at the Intensive Care Unit.