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ACCIDENT survivor Yousef Hosein said WPC Susan Duncan Thomas, 57, could have survived Wednesday’s night accident, if there were cable barriers on that stretch of the highway where a vehicle crossed the median and crashed into hers.
Hosein said not everyone gets the chance to survive and tell their stories. He wants to use this second chance and his voice to save lives.
Hosein, said he survived a similar accident which claimed the life of Duncan Thomas, in the same spot on the Solomon Hochoy Highway in the vicinity of Harmony Hall, Gasparillo and under the same circumstances.
Like Duncan Thomas, Hosein, a phlebotomist at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), was also driving on the north bound lane when a truck from the south bound lane crossed the median and landed onto his vehicle. He survived with severe injuries to his head and legs.
A police report said at around 8.45 pm on Wednesday, a 29-year-old man of Mon Desir Road, Rousillac, was driving his black Nissan Navara south along the highway near Harmony Hall, when he lost control, crossed the median, came on to the northbound lanes of the highway and collided with Duncan's blue Hyundai Creta SUV.
Unlike Duncan Thomas, “I lived to tell the tale and I want to use my story to help save lives but I need the help of Government to do so.
“Many people don’t live to tell their story of survival. The WPC, a law enforcement officer, she cannot come back and say anything to anyone. I have that opportunity to beg and plead to the authority to install cable barriers.
He has been campaigning since his accident in 2012, for the installation of cable barriers along the highways to prevent vehicles from crossing the median and crashing into vehicles on the opposite side of the road.
“Nobody is listening to me.
“I am a dead man walking. I don’t know how or why I survived. I believe some divine intervention saved me for a greater purpose. In 2012 when I almost died, there were no cable barriers on that spot where a lot of accidents occur. To date, there still isn’t any.”
He also called for a rigorous maintenance of the existing barriers, pointing out where vehicles crash, the posts holding up the barriers are lying on the ground.
He argued that the height of the cable not being able to prevent vehicles from crossing onto the other side is unsubstantiated.
“Barriers do save lives. Had there been barriers where the accident on Wednesday night, the WPC would have survived. No vehicle should leave the side of the highway on which you are driving to come on the other side.
“Barriers could prevent that from happening.”
In a release, Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram also called on Government, “to put an end to their gerrymandering of the maintenance and repair of the cable barriers along our nation’s highways and to stop risking the lives of our citizens through their uncaring incompetence.”
Ratiram recalled that under the People’s Partnership Government of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, cable barriers were installed along several sections of the Solomon Hochoy Highway due to the prevalence of similar incidents which took the life of Duncan Thomas.
“Since September 2015, the Rowley-led PNM has notoriously been dragging its feet in the maintenance and repair of these life-saving cable barriers.”
He recalled Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan response to materials from sites where barriers were placed being stolen when the Opposition posed the question in June.
At the recent Standing Finance Committee, Ratiram again raised the issue of Government’s failure to utilise a $2 million allocation in fiscal 2022 for the provision of a Road Safety Audit.
He recommended the Ministry look at the risks posed to motorists and their passengers by failing to repair the barriers.
Sinanan responded it was a constant work in progress and the Ministry was continuing to look at them and to have them on a project.
“This excuse provided by Minister Sinanan serves to underscore the Government's lackadaisical and bureaucratic approach towards the maintenance and repair of this safety mechanism, as well as the need for more regular TTPS patrols along the nation’s highways.”
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