2 killed in 3-car highway crash

JAMIESON Bahadur, a survivor and an eyewitness to a Good Friday morning crash which killed two persons, is counting his lucky stars to be alive today. He is also thanking God for the intervention of Chaled Boodramsingh, one of the men killed in the crash. Also killed during the three-car smash-up was helicopter pilot Jean Pierre Tardieu. “While I am not happy about the death, if it were not for Boodramsingh’s intervention my family and I would have been dead today. I am thankful for being alive,” Bahadur told Newsday. “My one consolation to the family is that from what I saw, the boy did not feel pain, he did not see it coming. He died instantly.”

Bahadur also believes his family’s long tradition of keeping on the left except when overtaking, using seatbelts and reducing speed when the road is wet, is also responsible for their survival. “Moments before I had overtaken another car, and was at the time being overtaken by Boodramsingh when the accident happened. Seeing that the road was wet, I had also reduced my speed. Who knows, if I were driving faster and the young man did not overtake me, what could have happened,” Bahadur said. According to a report, Bahadur and his wife and son were heading north along the Uriah Butler highway near Flowerline Floral Store, Charlieville, around 2.45 am, when a car driven by Boodramsingh, 21, attempted to pass. While overtaking, Bahadur suddenly heard a bang and the car driven by Boodramsingh was pushing his over an incline on the highway into a ditch below. the Bahadurs escaped unhurt.

It was later discovered that the car which Tardieu, 45, was in, had crashed through the median on the road, and hit the car driven by Boodramsingh, causing it to come into contact with the car driven by Bahadur, and pushing it off the road. Boodramsingh died on the spot, while Tardieu succumbed to his injuries later at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Jenny Ramiah, who was in the car with Tardieu, is warded at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) in critical condition. All three had to be cut out of the cars using the “Jaws of Life.” Police could not determine if Tardieu or Ramiah was driving the car.

Investigations revealed that Tardieu was driving south after “liming” at Grand Bazaar Mall, Bamboo Village, Valsayn, while Boodramsingh, a Scotiabank employee, was heading home from Port-of-Spain. Bahadur called on the authorities to consider putting up barriers between the southbound and northbound lanes of the highway, as too many people are being killed on the highway. When Newsday visited the Waterfall Road, Maracas/St Joseph home of the Tardieus, relatives refused to speak, claiming they were private persons. At their Cane Farm, West, Tacarigua home, Boodramsingh’s family said, after speaking to Bahadur, that they were consoled by the fact that chaled did not suffer.

In another unrelated accident, officers of the Central Police Station are investigating the death of Ralph Alexander, who was pronounced dead on arrival at the PoSGH after his car ploughed into a tree on the median of Wrightson Road, Port-of Spain. According to reports, Alexander was heading east around 2.45 pm, when he lost control and crashed into the tree. Officers from the nearby Wrightson Road Fire Services responded and used the “Jaws of Life” to cut him out of the car.