http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,186406.htmlBy ALEXANDER BRUZUAL Wednesday, November 13 2013
In the blink of an eye, the life of 62-year-old Santa Cruz resident Jocelyn Marquis Taylor ended yesterday when steel rods fatally struck her in a horrific vehicular accident.
At about 3 pm, Taylor was driving her white Nissan Wingroad car south along Saddle Road, Febeau Village, San Juan and at the same time, a white truck transporting steel rods was proceeding north on the opposite lane. The rods were held together by a rope.
Just as the two vehicles were passing each other, in the vicinity of the Ramesh and Leela Supermarket, the unthinkable happened — the rope which held the steel rods together in the tray of the truck violently snapped, and the rods were thrown directly onto Taylor’s car.
With a sickening noise, heard by several persons nearby, some of the rods pierced the bonnet of Taylor’s vehicle, while others crashed through the car’s windscreen on the driver’s side, hitting her in the face. Taylor died instantly.
The rods hit the vehicle with such force, that they were bent into obtuse angles.
It is believed that the accident caused Taylor’s foot to come off the gas pedal, and the car came to a stop just before the supermarket.
Upon hearing the impact of the steel rods on the car, the driver of the truck stopped his vehicle just before reaching Laventille Road. When he got out and saw that the rods had struck a car, it was said that he rushed to damaged vehicle and was horrified to see that its driver was dead.
“Oh God! I did that? I did that? Nah man,” the driver was overheard saying shortly after seeing Taylor’s body in the car. Eyewitnesses said the driver sobbed uncontrollably, hitting the walls of nearby buildings in shock.
The police were notified as well as officials from the Emergency Health Services, and a party of officers from the Santa Cruz Police Station and the San Juan Police Post responded. Fire officials from the San Juan Fire Station also arrived and later had the task of carefully removing the steel rods before Taylor’s body could be taken out of the car.
When they arrived the police cordoned off the area and began to question the driver who was taken into the back of a police vehicle.
At intervals, a cellphone inside Taylor’s vehicle would ring. Passersby urged officers to answer the phone and inform who was calling of what had transpired, however, the police said they could not tamper with the scene until it had been recorded and observed by the Crime Scene Investigations Unit.
Persons at the scene told reporters they “heard a loud bang” and when they went outside, they were horrified by what they discovered.
“It was just one loud noise. Like bang! And we ran outside. Next thing you know I see all these steel rods on the ground, and when I looked down, I see a car had stopped.
“I went and looked to see if I could render any assistance and when I reach, the woman face was clean gone. I never saw anything like it and I hope I never do again. It was horrifying,” said one man, who gave his name as Jacob.
“And the young man who was driving the truck, I felt sorry for him. He was just there crying and saying he sorry. He couldn’t believe what had happened. He kept on saying he had secured it (the rods) before he left, and he didn’t know how the rope broke. But he was in a state,” Jacob said.
Taylor’s body and the vehicles were eventually moved shortly after 4.30 pm, after crime scene investigators processed the scene and the District Medical Officer examined the body.
No family members of the deceased woman had arrived up to that point.
The accident also caused a traffic pile up in the community as commuters had to find alternative routes to their destinations along the Saddle Road. Investigations are continuing.
