3 killed in accidents

THE lives of three young men were snuffed out in vehicular accidents at Mayaro and Freeport, within the space of three hours early yesterday morning.

The deaths of Nielson Edwards, 20, of Radix Village, Mayaro; David Lou Hing, 21, of Rest House Village, Mayaro and UWI student Neville Charles, 24, of Covigne Road, Diego Martin, have sent the road-fatality rate for this year to 62. Edwards and his long time friend Lou Hing, died instantly when they and other friends, Curt Philbert, 17, and Kyle Bholai, 20, went on a joyride to test out a modified car engine. The car they were in, ran off the Guayaguayare Road in Grand Lagoon, Mayaro and crashed head-on into an electricity pole. Miraculously, Philbert and Bholai walked away from the horrendous accident which claimed their friends’ lives. “It just wasn’t my time to go”, a pensive Philbert, who suffered only minor cuts and bruises, told Sunday Newsday.

In the second fatal accident, Charles died at Port-of-Spain General Hospital hours after the car in which he was a passenger, plunged into a river off the Solomon Hochoy Highway, after one of its tyres blew. Two of Charles’ friends, who are also UWI students, received minor injuries. In the first incident, around 12.15 am, Lou Hing was driving a silver B14 Nissan Sentra north along Guayaguayare Road, Grand Lagoon, with Edwards, Philbert and Bholai as his passengers. For reasons not yet known to investigators, Lou Hing lost control of the vehicle which ran off the road and slammed into a lamppost. Lou Hing and Edwards died instantly.

For the Edwards family, the situation turned more tragic when Nicholas Figaro, an uncle of Nielson Edwards, was seriously injured in an accident he suffered while en route to the Mayaro crash scene. Figaro, 32, remains warded at Sangre Grande District Hospital. According to Lou Hing’s father, Clyde, Lou Hing got his car back on Friday afternoon from the mechanic shop. For the last three weeks, the car was in the auto shop being changed from an automatic transmission to a manual five-forward transmission.

Still reeling from shock, Philbert, 17, said that Lou Hing was not speeding, and although he had a few drinks, he was not drunk. “We were only going about 80-100 kilometres and the road was almost clear. I was the one who was liming whole evening, not David,” Philbert insisted. He related that Lou Hing met him at a pub in Rio Claro on Friday evening around 10 pm and later picked up Bholai along the way, and then Edwards from his home. He said after they “limed” in Mayaro, Lou Hing was taking everyone home, and Bholai was the first to be dropped off at his home at Grand Lagoon, Guayaguayare.

Philbert said: “We were going over a hill and when we reached the top a blue van pulled on our side. David tried to brakes, and we ended up half on the road and half in the grass. When he tried to get back on the road like he lost control and hit the pole.” He recalled climbing out of  the wreck, and was told by onlookers that he started running up the road. “I wasn’t even thinking that something had happened to my friends. Only this morning in the hospital they told me they died.” The Edwards’ home was filled with sorrow yesterday as they mourned Nielson’s death, and awaited word on Figaro’s condition at hospital. Edwards’ sister, Sachelle, told Sunday Newsday that her brother was hesitant to leave when Lou Hing pulled up and wanted to take him out for a lime.

At Lou Hing’s residence yesterday at Popwell Drive, his father, Clyde, said of the deceased that he was “an enthusiastic boy who was willing to learn. He was my eyeball, my first born son and there will not be another like him”, the father said. Three hours later, UWI students and close friends Naresh Nanram, 22, of Warrenville Road, Charlieville; Javed Hosein, 25, of Depot Road, Longdenville and Neville Charles, 24, of Covigne Road, Diego Martin, were returning from a lime at Screamers Club in Gulf City.

According to reports, Nanram was driving his navy-blue Honda Accord north along the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway, to drop his friends to their respective homes. On nearing the Chase Village flyover, the right back tyre of the car blew out, causing Nanram to lose control of the car which veered off the highway, crashed into a light pole and then plunged into a river 50 feet from the highway.

Motorists who saw the accident telephoned the Freeport police. EHS ambulances and firemen arrived shortly and took Charles, Hosein and Nanram to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, San Fernando General Hospital and Couva Health Centre, respectively. Charles died shortly at the Casualty Department of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. “Neville was a quiet boy who studied hard and loved life,” stated a dazed-looking Marcelle Charles.

The grieving father sat on a chair next to a large portrait of his dead son, in the porch of their Covigne Road, Diego Martin home. He recounted how his son, who studied Natural Sciences, was to have graduated from UWI later this year and had planned to pursue a career in Oceanography. Cpl Ramdath of the Mayaro police station and Freeport policeman Cpl Mohammed Khan, are investigating the Mayaro and Freeport accidents respectively.

Latest : two persons were killed in a car crash last night on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, Valsayn. Up to press time details were not available.