Five killed in car crash

FIVE people including three Venezuelan students were killed yesterday in a vehicular accident when an empty six-wheel dump truck ploughed into three vehicles at the Mausica intersection, Churchill Roosevelt Highway.

The dead have been identified as John Romel Solomon, 25, of Sun Valley Avenue, Malabar, Phase 2, his Venezuelan fianc? Sudhey Christina Sanchez Solorzano, 19, Natasha Marcano, 43, of Mahogany Drive, Lopinot, Arouca and Venezuelans Andres Jimenez, 30, and his girlfriend, Carolina Norluskus Perdomo, 27. Venezuelan Consulate Victoria Abreu told Newsday that arrangements are being made for the bodies of the three Venezuelan nationals to be flown to their homeland for burial.  The Venezuelans stayed in Malabar close to Solomon. Abreu said doctors at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital tried to save the lives of Solorzano and Perdomo.

Two other people in the smash-up, identified as Damian Primus and Wiltshire Modeste, of Longdenville, were treated and discharged from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH). One man, Stephen Ollivierre, 25, of La Horquetta, escaped without injuries.  He was the lone occupant in his white Nissan B12 Sentra vehicle. Solomon and Solorzano were due to be married on August 16, while Marcano celebrated her 43rd birthday yesterday and had just dropped off her 13-year-old daughter, Roysha, who had earlier returned from a swim meet in Grenada. Solomon, father of a nine-year-old boy, Emillio, was an Amalgamated Security officer stationed at the Canadian Embassy, while Marcano was employed at WASA’s Water Resource Agency, Farm Road, St Joseph.

ACP Mobile Deochan Gosein said yesterday that there have been 56 fatal accidents with 73 people killed. “We are on par with murders. We are going neck and neck,” he said, imploring motorists to drive within the highway code. Preliminary reports are that around 10 am yesterday, an empty Nissan six-wheel dump truck driven by Modeste, was travelling in an easterly direction on the Churchhill Roosevelt Highway. Police said as the traffic lights at the Mausica intersection changed from green to red, a car in front of the dump truck, owned by Home Construction, stopped.  Modeste applied brakes, tried to veer off, but the dump truck jumped the median and overturned on a green B13 Nissan Sentra driven by John Solomon Jr. The three Venezuelan nationals were occupants of Solomon’s car. Police said part of the dump truck fell on a white Toyota Tercel vehicle, in which Marcano and Primus were the only occupants. Their vehicle was abreast of Solomon’s. Marcano was the driver of that car.

Ollivierre’s white B12 Nissan Sentra which was behind the other two cars, was also struck. The three cars involved were all travelling in a westerly direction along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. Solomon and Andres died instantly.  Emergency Health Services (EHS) ambulances took Modeste, Primus, Marcano, Solorzano and Carolina to the Arima Health Facility, where Marcano was pronounced dead on arrival. Modeste, Primus, Solorzano and Carolina were transferred to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) where Solorzano and Carolina died.

At the scene yesterday, Jean and John Solomon Sr, parents of John Solomon, said their son was heading for Piarco International Airport to drop off his fianc?, who was going back to Venezuela for a wedding dress. They also said that Andres and Carolina were due to return home tomorrow. “He was a very nice and miserable boy.  He left home this morning teasing me making monkey face,” Jean, mother of five, told Newsday. She said she had decided to go to the airport to surprise her son and intended daughter-in-law.  However, the woman said, on her way she noticed the commotion and decided to stop. 

Jean said she saw her son’s vehicle and realised what had happened. The elder Solomon, a police officer attached to the Arima Police Station, cried uncontrollably and could barely speak. At Marcano’s home, her live in mate, Gerard Richardson said after dropping off her daughter, Marcano was going to practice with her Latin band, Del Sueno Del Sol.  Primus is also a member of the band.  Handicapped by a stroke, Richardson said it was a serious loss at the take-off point of their lives.  Sgt Andrews of the Maloney Police Post is continuing investigations.