Seven killed in weekend accidents

The dead have been identified as Imran Asif Hasmatally, 19, of St John’s Road, Oropouche; Ravi Sieunarine, 18; Joseph Ivan, 16, who both lived at Market Street in Fyzabad; policeman Manul Marcano, 37, of VillaBerra Street in Siparia; Natalie Davis of Upper Ravine Road, Petit Valley; Orlando Parris of Diego Martin and a woman identified by police only as ‘Melissa’ who lived in Diego Martin

The first of the three fatal accidents occurred at 10.20 pm on Saturday, when Anil Ramjass, 18, of Market Road, Fyzabad was celebrating his birthday with his friends —Hasmatally, Sieunarine and Ivan — when the car they were in ran, off the road and slammed into a tree at South Truck Road in La Romaine.

Ramjass and his friends remained trapped in the mangled wreck. Police said Hasmatally was heading to San Fernando in a blue Hyundai Accent when he lost control a short distance away from a bridge. The car skidded off the left side of the road and crashed into a pommecythere tree.

On impact, the tree was uprooted with a part of its trunk falling on top of the car. A villager who witnessed the accident alerted the police. The fire service had removed the trunk which they cut into pieces in order to reach to the victims inside the car. Hasmatally and Ivan died on the spot. Sieunarine and Ramjass were taken to San Fernando General Hospital where Sieunarine succumbed to his injuries shortly after.

About 20 minutes later, policeman Manul Marcano, 37, attached to the Siparia Police Station was killed after he crashed into two lamp posts near his home at VillaBerra Street, Siparia. Marcano, who was known as the "cat-eyed policeman", died on the spot.

Yesterday, a sombre Snr Supt Gopichand Ganga — head of the South-Western Police Division — extended condolences on behalf of Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul and Marcano’s colleagues to the bereaved family.

Marcano who was a policeman for ten years, was described by colleagues as an honest and hard working cop. Marcano’s distraught relatives said he had been returning home after picking up his red Laser from the garage when the accident occurred. "He was a safe driver and never used to drive fast," a relative added.

At the Fyzabad and Oropouche homes of the teenaged victims, tears flowed freely and screams rent the air.

Relatives said they were not certain where the teenagers were heading since the four said they were going to different places on leaving their respective homes. Hasmatally’s brother, Hariff, 21, told Newsday that Imran had asked him to borrow his car — a blue Hyundai Accent — to pick up Sieunarine, whom he worked with in a auto garage, to "shoot pool."

On the brink of tears, Sieunarine’s father Piarilal, 50, told Newsday his son — the eldest of his three children — told him he was going to Gulf City. "I wish if I could give my life for my son but life have to go on," he sobbed.

In the third accident, a Diego Martin woman who ignored the warning of her mother not to go out, was one of three persons killed during a collision along the Uriah Butler Highway (UBH) yesterday morning. Three other persons were also injured in this incident, including a Jamaican national.

Two of the three injured persons were identified as driver Lystra Grosvenor and Jamaican national Morris Dunray.

According to reports, around 1.30 am a Ford Focus vehicle, driven by Grosvenor with five other people was proceeding south along the highway in the vicinity of the Guayamare Bridge when the driver lost control and crashed into a lamp post located on the eastern side of the bridge.

Both women, Natalie and Melissa died at the scene of the crash, while Parris died on arrival at the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex in Mt Hope. Both Dunray and Grosvenor remain warded in critical condition at the EWMSC.