3 BURN TO DEATHBy Indarjit Seuraj and Cecily Asson Friday, November 6 2009
Three men from Penal burnt to death early yesterday morning when a ten-tonne truck exploded after crashing into the Bailey bridge along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in Macoya.
Businessman Rohan “Bobby” Maharaj, 36, Kishore Kumar, 30, and Anil Mohammed, 30, died minutes after the truck burst into flames.
Police investigators said Maharaj, the owner of the truck, was heading east, at about 1 am, and may have been speeding when he drove into the rail of the bridge on the right lane. The impact crumpled a section of the rail of the temporary bridge.
Reports of how the men died vary. One account indicates Maharaj and Kumar managed to make it out of the truck but went back to free Mohammed who was trapped in the passenger seat when the vehicle exploded. They were all burnt beyond recognition, the report said.
A second report also confirmed Maharaj and Kumar got out of the truck but indicates they were already on fire and died on the bridge.
According to this account, firefighters arrived within minutes and it took them some time to extinguish the fire because of the slow burning diesel fuel from the truck. But when they did put out the fire, the charred body of Mohammed was found on the dashboard. Police believe he tried to crawl through the windscreen, but could not do so because of the injuries he sustained.
Police said Kumar and Mohammed were Maharaj’s employees and the three men were on their way to a sand and gravel quarry operated by National Quarries Ltd in Sangre Grande. However, relatives yesterday described the men, of Lachoos Road, Penal, as friends and said Kumar and Mohammed went with Maharaj “for company” to the quarry. Maharaj’s father, retired TTEC employee Roopnarine Maharaj, 70, told Newsday he could not believe his son was dead.
“Over the last three weeks,” Roopnarine said, “Bobby (Maharaj) has been driving the truck as his regular driver took some time off for personal reasons. He didn’t have an extra driver and because of the amount of work he has, he had no choice.”
Describing his son as a skillful driver, Roopnarine said he was baffled as to how the truck caught fire. Maharaj, a father of three, owned three trucks and operated a small business for the past 12 years.
“From what I heard from an eyewitness, two of them came out alive but went back to help Anil (Mohammed) who was trapped inside when the truck burst into flames,” Roopnarine said. Yesterday should have been a day of celebration for two of the families. Kumar’s mother and Mohammed’s mother would have celebrated their respective 31st wedding anniversaries.
“Instead we have to bury our sons,” Kumar’s shocked mother, Jassodra Kumar told Newsday.
“Kishore (Kumar) and Anil (Mohammed) were like brothers. His (Anil) mother and I got married on the same day and one year later our boys were born two days apart. Look how they died together. I think God planned it that way because they couldn’t live without each other.”
Jassodra said she last saw her son on Wednesday night liming at the junction where he, Maharaj and Mohammed along with other friends “were making a cook.”
At the accident scene yesterday, Insp Nyron Dookeran, who is assigned to the Police Traffic Division, said his unit had recently increased police patrols along the stretch of the Churchill/Roosevelt Highway between the Macoya intersection and Trincity traffic lights. Yesterday’s fatal crash caused a back-up of traffic as the flow was diverted to the west bound lane of the highway, as engineers worked feverishly to repair the weakened bridge. This work was expected to be completed late yesterday. Traffic heading east was also diverted last evening from the Macoya intersection to the Priority Bus Route to facilities repairs.
The Bailey bridge was built as a temporary structure after an old bridge collapsed almost exactly one year ago when torrential downpours washed away the foundation.
A new bridge is being built at a cost of $25 million and work is expected to be completed by the first week in December.
Police confirmed the three men’s deaths raised the number of fatalities to occur on the stretch between the bridge and the Trincity traffic lights to six for this year. Overall, 175 persons have died in road accidents across the country.
The statistics for Penal are also high as yesterday’s deaths pushed the number of persons from the rural community who died tragically this week to seven.
It was only five days ago, four Penal villagers, Winston Seelal, his nephew Nazim Mohammed, Mahadeo Roopchan and Ramdeo Jugmohan all collapsed and died after eating food and drinking homemade wine at Seelal’s home. Autopsies later revealed the four men all died as a result of poisoning.
