Hours before three of his security guards died in a car crash, Manog
Dhanasirsingh, owner of SecuriServ Ltd, had decided to reward one of them for
being employee of the month.
The certificate of appreciation
for June would have gone to Nigerian-born Kingsley Nnamani, 36. Nnamani, fellow
guard Maureen Bovell, 44, and SecuriServ driver, Allison George, 24, lost their
lives in an accident on the Solomon Hochoy Highway on Wednesday night. They were
in a new SecuriServ van driven by George who, police report, lost control near
the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. George, who lived in Laventille, had picked up
the two guards after they finished their duties at the NP service station on
Rushworth Street, San Fernando.
The van flipped over to the south-bound lane and crashed into a Mazda 626 driven
by Curtis John, of Chariah Street, Gasparillo, who was on his way home from work
in Port-of-Spain. While the SecuriServ employees died on the spot, John, 43, was
declared dead on arrival at San Fernando General Hospital. The accident took
place at about 7 pm.
Dhanasirsingh, who was still at his SecuriServ head office in Barataria, got the
dreaded call at about 7.55 pm. He immediately headed to Couva.
“I stood in awe of how sudden the accident was,” Dhanasirsingh said last
evening, after he spent the day speaking to his dead workers’ relatives and
accepting calls of condolences, one of which came from the Venezuelan Embassy.
This was where Nnamani, who recently married and lived in Sea Lots,
Port-of-Spain, last worked before joining SecuriServ 11 months ago, said
Dhanasirsingh.
“The embassy called to relay condolences because he was a really good worker,
easy to get along with. I talk about him just yesterday (Wednesday) and (that)
night found out they were dead.”
Dhanasirsingh also had high praise for Guyanese-born Bovell, a San Juan resident
who had been with his company for six months and George, although the
24-year-old was hired two-and-a-half weeks ago.
George was a “great driver,” he said, also disclosing that Bovell’s children are
due to arrive in Trinidad from Guyana today. The stunned businessman
promised to do what was “humanly possible” to help his employees’ families with
funeral expenses, adding that payouts are to be assessed based on the terms of
the company’s workmen’s compensation plan.
This may be good news for George’s father, Goslyn John, who said the young woman
took the part-time job at SecuriServ to assist the family financially. “Allison
was a friendly person and she would come home and help out around the house,”
said John, who described his daughter as a mother to the family, even though she
did not have any children.
“She helped out the little ones around the house and to study their school work.
She was very supportive. She was mama to everyone.” Other relatives said
George’s motto was “justice”. Struggling to cope with the grief of John’s
death, his family in Gasparillo declined to be interviewed yesterday. The only
comment a spokesman had was that they had “been through enough already.”
Meanwhile, investigators said many of the accidents which occurred on the
highway were usually the result of speeding.
“That area is well-known for vehicular accidents,” a senior police officer told
Newsday. “Motorists who are speeding along the highway often lose control,
especially around the corners and eventually crash. It is a sad consequence.”
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