Mom crushed to death by husband’s truck

A Claxton Bay mother of four was crushed to death yesterday when a six-wheeler truck that was driven by her husband, rolled over her while she was urinating at the side of the road in Rio Claro.

Vindra Padarath, 40, of Squatters Settlement, St Margaret’s, died almost instantly on impact, police said. Her husband, Ramsaran Padarath, 43, frantically rushed his wife for medical treatment to the Princes Town Medical Clinic, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. He, and another couple who were with the Padaraths, Indar and Angela Seebhaggan, were questioned about the incident by Rio Claro police, and were allowed to leave the station by afternoon. Indar told Newsday: “I don’t know if she was breathing when they put her in the truck to take her to hospital. To me, she died instantly with that mash she get.”

When Newsday visited the Padarath house, Ramsaran was too distraught to speak to the media. A truck driver for over 20 years, Ramsaran was driving a six-wheeler owned by his employers CDS Transport, of Freeport. The heavy duty vehicle was impounded at the Princes Town Police Station. According to police reports, the fatal accident occurred around 12.30 am when the two couples were in the six wheeler truck with Ramsaran at the wheel, returning from Mafeking, Mayaro where they had attended a wake for a relative. During the drive, an argument broke out, and Padarath stopped the heavy duty vehicle on the Naparima Mayaro Road, in the vicinity of Deep Ravine Village. All but Ramsaran alighted from the truck, and the two women went behind the truck on the roadside to urinate.

Recalling the last moments with Vindra, Angela told Newsday: “I came out of the truck first to ‘pass water,’ and she came after. When I finished I walked off towards my husband, and I leave her there.” Angela said that it was while Ramsaran was attempting to steer the vehicle closer to the roadside that tragedy struck. “A car wanted to pass on the road, so he (Ramsaran) was moving more to the side of the road and that was it,” Angela related. Indar said Ramsaran told him he (Ramsaran) felt something “like a bump,” and looked out to see his wife under the wheel. “I don’t know if she bawl out or anything. I just remember we put her in the truck and took her to hospital. But she didn’t make it,” Indar told Newsday.

Relatives flocked to the Padarath house at St Margaret’s upon hearing of the tragedy. The mother of the deceased, Chandardaye Bholan, 60, cried: “She was my only daughter and I couldn’t ask God for a more kind and loving daughter.” From the Princes Town Medical Clinic, the body was later taken to the San Fernando Mortuary where an autopsy is expected to be performed today. Cpl Gidharrie of the Rio Claro Police Station is continuing enquiries.