Relatives of accident victim ask witnesses to go to cops

RELATIVES of dead truck-driver Shaheed Mohammed are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed last Tuesday’s accident, to report what they saw to the police who are investigating just how the 18-wheel diesel truck Mohammed was driving, capsized at George Village, Tableland. Relatives claimed Mohammed was given a “bad drive” by the driver of another truck, which resulted in Mohammed having to veer to the edge of the road. Mohammed, a truck driver for the past 30 years, was driving a Rahamut’s Enterprises Ltd fuel-tanker along Naparima/Mayaro Road, when on reaching George Village, Tableland, the tanker’s wheels skirted off the edge of the road. The tanker, which was carrying 8,000 pounds of diesel, overturned three times and landed in a ditch at the roadside. Mohammed who was pinned behind the wheels died on the spot.

An autopsy carried out on Wednesday at the Forensic Sciences Centre  indicated Mohammed died of a broken neck and he also sustained several broken ribs. Mohammed’s daughter-in-law Zaniffer, who spoke to Newsday at the family home at Soledad Road, Claxton Bay, said the family got reports that persons in a maxi-taxi witnessed the accident. “I am asking those persons to go to the police to report what they saw. Maybe they (witnesses) saw the number plate of the other vehicle or something that could help the police to find out what really happened,” Zaniffer said. Yesterday, a female caller to Newsday’s South Bureau claimed she saw  the accident while in a maxi-taxi en route to Princes Town.

The caller who asked to remain anonymous said she saw Mohammed attempting to negotiate the bend simultaneously with another truck which was travelling in the opposite direction. The caller claimed the other truck occupied more than half of the road as it attempted to negotiate the bend. Mohammed’s truck, the caller claimed, was literally forced off the road. The caller said that persons from the maxi-taxi stopped to assist Mohammed, while the driver of the other truck sped off. Mohammed’s wife, Zalakha, 55, said her husband for 34 years was a “quiet and friendly person,” who was dedicated to his job. “I think he loved his job more than himself. If he came home ten in the night and the company called him back out, he would go,” Zalakha said.