Weekend of death

A SATURDAY evening river lime at Caura ended in tragedy when two men, neighbours and best friends, died instantly when the car they were in ran off the Churchill Roosevelt High-way, Valsayn and crashed into another vehicle on Saturday night.

This weekend was a particularly bloody one in which five persons were killed in accidents in Mayaro, Freeport and Valsayn and one man was murdered in Laventille. The two latest road fatalities have been identified as Kris “Ras” Babwah, 21, and Pedro “Kanky” Mitchell, 25, both of Parray Lane, El Socorro Extension, San Juan. According to police reports, at around 7.20 pm, Babwah was driving a Nissan Sunny along the west-bound lane of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. Mitchell was seated in the front while three other men sat in the back seat. Following closely behind in two other vehicles, were relatives and friends of Babwah and Mitchell.

On reaching the vicinity of Valpark Shopping Plaza, the car started to skid and Babwah applied brakes. However, he lost control of the vehicle which ran off the right lane of the highway. The out-of-control car crashed head on into a Space Wagon van, driven by Shairoon Mohammed, which was proceeding along the east-bound lane of the highway. Mitchell and Babwah died instantly while the other occupants of the car, plus Mohammed and a woman who was a passenger in his van, all received serious injuries and had to be taken to hospital. Relatives and friends of the dead men ran to the crash scene. Babwah’s common-law wife Betty Ramlal was inconsolable. “Oh God Kris why yuh have to leave me and dead so,” Ramlal screamed while being restrained by relatives.

Basdeo Babwah, sat at the side of the highway and lovingly caressed the bloodied and battered face of his dead son, who lay alongside Mitchell’s body. A friend was heard muttering that it was fitting the two good friends, who grew up together, died together. At the Babwah and Mitchell houses, relatives were busy preparing tents for a wake yesterday. “He was a real nice man and did not deserve to die the way he did,” Ramlal told Newsday as she looked at photos of her dead husband. Mitchell’s sister, Stacy Yorke described him as  a hard working person who also put aside time to lime with his family and friends. While the Babwah family have already planned to hold his funeral on Tuesday, the Mitchell family said they would wait until Mitchell’s wife Maureen, who is on vacation out of the country, returns home today.

Visiting the scene of the fatal accident were Sgt Smith, PCS Nirmal Ramjattan, Spencer and Springer. Autopsies done yesterday at the Port-of-Spain Mortuary revealed that Babwah died of massive head and neck injuries while Mitchell died of internal bleeding and damage to major internal organs. St Joseph police are continuing investigations. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Deochand Gosine said he was very concerned about the carnage and loss of life on the nation’s roads. “People need to be more vigilant and exercise greater care when they are driving,” ACP Gosine said. The weekend road carnage has sent the road fatality figure for the year to 64.