Dying businessman robbed at crash site

WHILE BUSINESSMAN Elias Coelho, owner/distributor of the Dunka Donuts line, lay injured in the wreckage of his van early yesterday morning, he was robbed of cash and doughnuts. The accident occurred at around 1.30 am when Coelho, 64, a member of the Coelho Bakery family, was driving south along Lady Young Road, Morvant, in the vicinity of Neal and Massy Limited. He lost control of the van which had hit the median and flipped three times before landing on the left side of the road. Looters rushed to the crash scene and helped themselves to doughnuts and Coelho’s money before help arrived. Eventually the bleeding man was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he died while undergoing emergency surgery.

Yesterday, at Coelho’s home on Battersea Drive, Santa Cruz, his widow, Bernadine, was too traumatised to speak but a friend of the family described the late businessman as “ a wonderful man who will surely be missed.” “He supported several charities and other similar efforts. Elias had a big heart,” said the friend, who revealed in the hours before his death, that Coelho had attended a business meeting at the Queen’s Park Cricket club where he was a member and had “socialised a bit.” “Around midnight he called his wife and said he was on his way home. That was something he always did. “When she did not see him around 1 am, she began to call his cell phone and got no answer. She called friends but was not duly worried until she got a call from the police.

“Together with their 14-year-old daughter they went to the hospital, spoke to him and then waited while he went to the operating theatre. Two hours later the doctor returned to say he was dead.” Coelho’s friend expressed concern about the attitude of the looters who robbed the injured man instead of helping him. He also expressed concern about the fact that Coelho had to wait two hours before he went into surgery because doctors were operating on a man who had been shot. After the Coelho Baking Company’s franchise and rights were sold to Kiss Baking Products several years ago, Coelho and one of his four children, who lives in the United States, opened the Dunka Donuts Company. Elias dealt with local distribution, while his son handled the foreign market. Family sources told Sunday Newsday they are waiting on Coelho’s children to arrive in the country before finalising funeral arrangements.