Black Immigrant Daily News

By Gemma Handy/NEWSCO

‘Kenny was an angel’.

Those were the simple yet poignant words on one placard when devastated medical students took their anger, frustration and heartbreak to the street in honour of their friend left critically injured in a road accident.

American University of Antigua (AUA) students are demanding justice and urgent overseas treatment for Kenneth Mathew, who suffered a severe brain injury in the October 23 incident in Friars Hill Road.

Mathew, a 21-year-old first semester medical student from Dubai, and pre-med student Priyanjana Das, 19, had been crossing the recently resurfaced highway after leaving a university party at Stratos Bar and Lounge when they were struck by a car said to have been driven by Karim Edwards.

The 45-year-old accountant allegedly initially fled the scene before later handing himself into police. He appeared before court on Friday morning charged with dangerous driving, was stripped of his driving licence and bailed.

Police previously said they anticipated Edwards would be charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

But yesterday, Head of the Police Traffic Department, Rodney Ellis, told Observer, “You have 24 hours to report an accident; this individual returned to the scene within an hour.”

Today, Mathew – who had planned to dedicate his life to helping others – lies motionless in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with brain injuries that his friends say are likely irreparable.

Das suffered such severe damage to her right arm that it was amputated. Sources told Observer yesterday that she was “doing better” but remained “traumatised” by the loss of her dominant limb.

Her parents are by her hospital bedside and are also in need of “emotional support”, the source added.

Several of Mathew’s friends took part in Friday night’s demonstration. Another banner bore the frank statement: ‘You ruined their lives’.

Their visit to the scene of the tragedy also unearthed the heart-wrenching discovery of the remains of Mathew’s watch – as broken and shattered as its owner.

Poignant discovery: Students found the remains of Kenneth Mathew’s watch on the highway (Photo contributed)

“We found it where the accident was,” one student told Observer. “We kept it.”

Plans remain underway to fly both students overseas for specialist care not available locally.

Das’ parents are in the process of arranging airlift for her.

Mathew’s friends previously made desperate pleas for him to be flown out of the country swiftly, saying “every hour matters to save his life”.

Meanwhile, AUA has been offering counselling to students in the aftermath of the incident.

Last week, the university issued a statement thanking the public for its “tremendous show of support” for the injured pair, adding that AUA was doing everything possible to assist both the victims and their loved ones.

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Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr. Mashama Sealy has stressed the need for continuous training of police officers who face hazardous situations in civilian clothing or uniform daily.

Sealy spoke last week at the end of an officer post-probationary course.

She explained that training and knowledge are essential.

According to the senior police officer, they help determine success or failure and provide the required skills to avoid dangerous situations and do what is right in mediating situations.

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“It is not just a matter of merely surviving a course,” Sealy stated.

“But instead, it is about appropriating the skills, knowledge and abilities and practices that were passed on to you during the course which must become second nature to you as police officers,” she told course participants.

“Knowledge is not only power, but it is also the key to effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and success,” Sealy asserted.

“You decide how effective you are as a police officer based on the implementation and the application of knowledge provided to you during this course,” she said.

However, Sealy observed that training and education are more than merely sitting in a classroom and earning a certificate.

She said the application of the new-found knowledge the course participants had gained would help to maintain efficiency and proficiency, which must be continuous.

Sealy encouraged the officers to perform their duties professionally and not allow distractions to cause them to stray from what is right.

She congratulated the officers on completing the course.

And Sealy looked forward to the participants being the best at their department duties.

“You are the future of our organisation,” she declared.

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Gierende kinderen in de speeltuin, lekkere cocktails, pittige masala doks en kaaiman nuggets. Surinames grootste culinair festijn, Quota Men Cookout,

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Military teams were searching Monday for people missing after a century-old cable suspension bridge collapsed into a river Sunday in the western Indian state of Gujarat, sending hundreds plunging into the water and killing at least 133 in one of the country’s worst accidents in years.

As families mourned the dead, attention was turning to why the bridge, built by the British in the late 1800s and touted as an “engineering marvel,” collapsed and who might be responsible.

The local government had awarded a 15-year contract to maintain and manage the bridge to a Morbi-based company, Ajanta Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, mainly known for making clocks, mosquito racquets and electric bikes.

It reopened the bridge, which spans a wide section of the Machchu river, on October 26. That’s the first day of the Gujarati New Year, which coincides with the Hindu festival season, and the newly reopened attraction drew hundreds of sightseers.

Sandeepsinh Zala, a Morbi city official, told the Indian Express newspaper the company had reopened the bridge without first obtaining a “fitness certificate.” That claim could not be independently verified, but the state government said it had formed a special team to investigate the disaster.

Authorities said the structure collapsed under the weight of hundreds of people. Security footage of the disaster showed bridge shaking violently and people trying to keep hold of its cables and green-coloured metal fencing before the aluminum walkway gave way and crashed into the river.

Visuals from the disaster site showed the bridge split in the middle and the metal walkway hanging down, its cables snapped in places. At least 177 survivors were pulled from the river and teams from the army, navy and air force were looking for others still missing, said Jigar Khunt, an information department official in Gujarat.

State minister Harsh Sanghvi told reporters that 133 people were confirmed dead and many others were admitted to hospitals in critical condition. Emergency responders and rescuers worked overnight to search for the survivors. Most of the victims were teens, women and older people, he said.

It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were on the bridge when it collapsed but survivors said it was so densely packed that the crowd was unable to quickly move to safety when its cable began to snap.

“There were just too many people on the bridge. We could barely move,” Sidik Bai, 27, said while recovering from injuries in a hospital bed in Morbi.

Sidik said he jumped into the water when the bridge began to crack and saw his friend being crushed by its metal walkway. He survived by clinging to the bridge’s cables, but his friend didn’t make it.

“Everyone was crying for help, but one by one they all began disappearing in the water,” Sidik said.

Local news channels ran pictures of the missing shared by concerned relatives and family members raced to overcrowded hospitals searching for their loved ones.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, visiting his home state of Gujarat, said he was “deeply saddened by the tragedy.” His office announced compensation for families of the dead and called for speedy rescue efforts.

“Rarely in my life, would I have experienced such pain,” Modi said during a public event in the state on Monday.

Modi was the top elected official of Gujarat for 12 years before becoming India’s prime minister in 2014. A Gujarat state government election is expected in coming months and opposition parties have demanded an investigation into the collapse.

The bridge collapse is Asia’s third major disaster involving large crowds in a month.

On Saturday, a Halloween crowd surge killed more than 150 mostly young people who attended festivities in Itaewon, a neighbourhood in Seoul, South Korea. On October 1, police in Indonesia fired tear gas at a soccer match, causing a crush that killed 132 people as spectators tried to flee.

India’s infrastructure has long been marred by safety concerns, and Mordi has suffered other major disasters. In 1979, an upstream dam on the Machchu river burst, sending walls of water into the city and killing hundreds of people in one of India’s biggest dam failures.

In 2001, thousands of people died in an earthquake in Gujarat. Morbi town, 85 miles (150 km) from the quake’s epicenter in Bhuj, suffered widespread damage. According to a report in the Times of India newspaper, the bridge that collapsed Sunday also was severely damaged.

By AJIT SOLANKI, KRUTIKA PATHI and SHEIKH SAALIQ

Aijaz Hussain, Saaliq and Pathi reported from New Delhi.

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The tropical storm watch issued for Jamaica Sunday remains in effect as potential tropical cyclone number 15 moves westward over the central Caribbean Sea and offshore the island’s south coast.

“This means that tropical storm conditions pose a possible threat to Jamaica within 48 hours,” the Meteorologica Service said in its bulletin issued at 5am Monday, October 31.

According to the Met Service, at 4am, the disturbance was centred near latitude 15.8 degrees north, longitude 76.1 degrees west, or about 230 kilometres (125 miles) south of Morant Point, Jamaica.

The system is moving towards the west near 19 km/h (12 mph) and a westward to west-northwestward motion is expected over the next few days, it said.

“On the forecast track, the centre will pass south of Jamaica today (Monday) and south of the Cayman Islands tomorrow (Tuesday),” the Met Service added.

Maximum sustained winds remain near 65 km/h (40 mph), with higher gusts, and the system is expected to become a tropical storm later Monday. Strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days and the system could be near hurricane intensity by Wednesday. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) from the centre.

Fishers on the cays and banks are reminded to exercise extreme caution at this time due to the dangerous sea conditions. Winds are expected to reach tropical storm force Monday while the disturbance moves across offshore waters south of the mainland, the Met Service said.

The system has the potential to produce 50-100 millimetres (2-4 inches) of rainfall and strong, gusty winds reaching near tropical storm force, starting over eastern and southern parishes later Monday morning.

Residents should be on the alert for possible flash flooding in flood-prone areas, it advised.The Meteorological Service said it will continue to monitor the progress of the tropical disturbance.

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