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alexk
Guest
Mother of two Salasha Ali may have received a second miracle of life yesterday after she survived a horrid accident in which an industrial mobile welding plant ploughed into her at the side of the road in Cunupia.
Ali, 30, was standing at her vegetable stall at the side of Chin Chin Road when the heavy plant was thrown from the tray of a three-tonne truck which overturned as the driver took a bend.
Although she was alive at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex last evening, Ali was said to be in a “bad state” and up to press time was in the A&E department undergoing several tests.
Her 11-year-old daughter, who was also struck by the equipment, was also lucky after sustaining a minor injury to one of her eyes. She was treated at the Accident and Emergency Depart (A&E) of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope and subsequently discharged.
During an interview hours after the incident, Ali’s husband, Michael Sookwah, 51, said just seconds before tragedy struck he was standing at his wife’s side, where the three of them had just packed out ochroes, pommecythere, lemon and lime to sell on a table.
“I had just walked away from Salasha and her daughter when I saw this van speeding coming. In a split second I heard the brakes of the van bawling and as he take the corner I saw when this machine just pitch out from the tray and hit my wife and daughter. The machine landed on her right side, pinning she to the ground,” a worried Sookwah recalled.
Sookwah said his wife sustained a broken leg and hand along with other injuries to her right-side and head.
“She badly off from what I see,” Sookwah said with tears in his eyes.
He added that the driver of the van, on realising what had taken place, stopped and reversed the vehicle to where his wife lay on the side of the road.
“He came out and helped us lift the machine from off of her, but up to now he never said a word to us. Not even anyone from the company the man working for has even tried to contact us.”
The three-tonne truck, TDG 3594, sported the company’s name in a banner fixed on its windscreen. The vehicle belongs to a construction company which is owned by a villager, bystanders said.
Sookwah said he and his wife do gardening and it was normal for them to put stalls along the road to sell their produce. He, however, noted that they had just recently decided to set up at the spot where the incident occurred.
“We come there about two weeks now and we have always been careful,” he said.
Sookwah scolded the driver of the vehicle for speeding and for not securing the heavy equipment.
“He wrong for speeding, especially around corners. If that was tied the entire van would have flipped but it pitch from the van. I just want to see my wife come back good and she gets compensation. I want to see that man in police custody and charged by the police.”
Eyewitness to the incident Foster Antoine, said he was willing to testify in any case which may go before the court. He noted that at that particular corner a lot of drivers tend to speed.
“How much time I will see speeding around this corner and how much time I will be saving people. I live around this corner and I see the van coming and I shout ‘clear’ but it was too late. The woman get pinned down and break leg, hand, ribs and neck,” he said.
“Them people trying to make an honest dollar. Now what will become of her?”
The T&T Guardian understands that the driver was questioned by police investigators and subsequently released.
Officers of the Cunupia Police Station are continuing investigations.