Two dead in Valencia crash

According to residents, at about 6.30am, two vehicles were driving along the Valencia stretch. One of them, a brown Toyota Corolla heading east to Sangre Grande, was driven by Jonathan Wayne Williams, 27, a security guard employed with Casa Security. His work colleague and close friend, Karlus Ashant Alexander, 24, was in the front seat of the car.

Both men were coming from their workplace at the Evolving Technology Limited (Eteck) Wallerfield Campus and returning to their Sangre Grande homes. They would never make it.

Another car, a grey Mazda, driven by Joel Bascombe, 51, a PH driver, was at the same time heading west along the Valencia stretch with security guard Iryann Seales, 21, in the front passenger seat. According to eyewitnesses, both vehicles were speeding when they collided as the grey Mazda was attempting to overtake a third vehicle. The Mazda hit the Corolla, spun around, and then was hit by the brown Toyota Corolla once more as it veered to the south.

Seales, 21, of Kangalee Street, Valencia, suffered a broken neck and died instantly in the mangled wreck of the grey Mazda. Alexander, 24, of Boisbande Street, Sangre Grande, remained alive, breathing heavily for roughly five minutes as fire officers struggled in vain to get him out of the wreckage using a hydraulic jack. Alexander remained pinned from the waist down despite the fire officers’ efforts and died at the scene.

The deaths pushed the road fatality figure for the year to 74. Jonathan Wayne Williams, 27, of Boisbande Street and Joel Bascombe, 51, of Sou Sou Lands Cunaripo were rushed by two separate ambulances to Sangre Grande Hospital and transferred to EWMSC where they were warded in critical condition up to yesterday afternoon. Seales was a guard at the EWMSC, where today Williams and Bascombe are fighting for their lives.

Police and fire officers discovered two suicide notes while removing the victims from the wreckage.

Basdaye Alexander, 52, Karlus’ mother, told Newsday at her Boisbande Road home, that Williams and Karlus were “good friends”. She said on Saturday evening, hours before both men left to work together, Williams told her, “Both of we will die together.” She said her son and Williams were always together.

She said Karlus’s last words to her were, “Mammy, how I look? Muscular?”

She said Karlus always kissed her goodbye before heading to work, but he did not do that on Saturday evening. She said her son had dreams of building a home and had even bought a piece of land and was going to start the foundation work for the house later this month.

Yesterday, Eteck President Khalid Hassanali expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

“I would like to express my sympathy, I’m very sorry to hear this,” he said in a telephone interview hours after the fatal smash-up.

The bodies were viewed by District Medical Officer Dr Srikant Domati before being removed at about 7.30 am. Autopsies will be done at the Forensic Science Centre today.

Inspector Peter Hamilton and a party of police officers, including Cpls Dexter Lewis, Nicholas Vialva, Monesh Baran, PCs Dave Bhaggan and Brian Bharath controlled traffic at the scene of the accident.