Trinidad: Hero Killed Trying To Save Children In Runaway Car

(TRINIDAD EXPRESS) – A 60-year-old man died while trying to save two children trapped in a rolling car on Thursday.

Around 7.50 a.m., Patrice George of Upper Dibe Road, Long Circular, St James, was walking along the road where he lived, when he noticed a burgundy Toyota Corolla car had started ­rolling down the hilly road.

There were two children, ages four and nine, inside the vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle—a 29-year-old woman who is the mother of the children—had parked the car on an access road off Upper Dibe Road and “went away leaving her two children… in the vehicle and went into a friend’s home”, a police report stated.

As George was walking, he saw the car in motion with no driver, and attempted to gain control of it to rescue the children inside.

But the car overturned into a ditch on the southern side of the road, pinning him under the right side of the car, police said.

George was assisted by people nearby and extracted from under the Corolla.

He was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital where attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 8.10 a.m.

The children were not hurt during the incident.

The scene was visited by acting Cpl Piper together with officers of the St James Police Station and St James CID. The incident is being investigated by St James police.