One dead after car plunges into Cunupia River

Shas­tri Boodan

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

One man is dead and two oth­ers are crit­i­cal fol­low­ing a road traf­fic ac­ci­dent in Cunu­pia short­ly af­ter 6 a.m. to­day.

Po­lice said the ac­ci­dent oc­curred short­ly af­ter the dri­ver of a red Nis­san Note, reg­is­tra­tion PEL 8295, left a gas sta­tion along the South­ern Main Road, Cunu­pia, af­ter re­fu­elling.

The ve­hi­cle was trav­el­ling north along the South­ern Main Road when, a short dis­tance from the gas sta­tion, the dri­ver lost con­trol.

The car crashed in­to a met­al bar­ri­er on the west­ern side of the road­way be­fore plung­ing in­to the Cunu­pia Riv­er, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15 feet be­low the lev­el of the road.

The dri­ver, whose iden­ti­ty had not been es­tab­lished, was among three oc­cu­pants of the ve­hi­cle.

The oth­er oc­cu­pants were a man and a woman. All three were tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex for med­ical treat­ment.

The dri­ver lat­er suc­cumbed to his in­juries at the hos­pi­tal. The oth­er two oc­cu­pants re­main ward­ed in crit­i­cal con­di­tion.

Po­lice were con­tin­u­ing their in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the ac­ci­dent and were al­so work­ing to es­tab­lish the iden­ti­ty of the de­ceased.

The car was a rental ve­hi­cle from a com­pa­ny in Ari­ma.