“Speeding is not going to get you anywhere, but your death,” grieving widow Nicole Durgadeen said yesterday, as she issued a tearful plea for motorists to exercise caution on the nation’s roadways. Durgadeen’s appeal came after her husband of 15 years, Sham Durgadeen, 39, lost his life in a car crash on Saturday morning. The couple have a 12-year-old daughter, Ariana.
Durgadeen, of Inverness Road, Princes Town, a father of one, was killed instantly when his Mazda 323 Familia crashed into the Guayamare River, Caroni. Yesterday, Durgadeen’s relatives were still trying to come to terms with his sudden death when the T&T Guardian visited his Princes Town home. Nicole, who broke down in tears while speaking, said too many lives were being lost on the road.
“Motorists, please take your time on the highway, there are people’s lives you dealing with in the roads. It is not you and you alone there,” she said. “More and more people are dying on the roads. Drinking and driving need to stop. Being on the road you need to take your time. Speeding is not going to get you anywhere, but your death.”
Durgadeen and his co-worker Lisa Mohammed, also of Princes Town, were heading South along the Uriah Butler Highway when a KIA van, driven by Kenny Satram, crashed into Durgadeen’s car around 12.20 am on Saturday.
The father of one lost control of his car, which flipped over and landed in the nearby river. Durgadeen died on the spot. Mohammed is warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, in stable condition. Satram is said to have escaped with minor injuries. Yesterday, Nicole said Durgadeen, an accounts clerk with the T&T Fire Service, was returning home from work when tragedy struck. She said around 11.30 pm on Friday, she spoke to Durgadeen and he told her he would be home shortly.
Later, she said neighbours contacted the family after they saw her husband’s car in the river. She said she called the Caroni Police Station and his phone several times, but did not get through. Nicole said the police contacted her shortly after and confirmed her husband’s death. She said contrary to media reports, her husband was not driving the KIA van nor was Mohammed Durgadeen’s wife. Nicole said the KIA van struck her husband’s car from behind and he lost control.
She said their daughter, a pupil of Jordhan Hill Presbyterian Primary School, recently wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) and Durgadeen was looking forward to her graduation on Tuesday. Nicole said the couple planned a special reward for their daughter. “It is hard. Her graduation is coming up and he will not get to see her graduation. He was looking forward to it,” she said.
“We had big plans for her. We had planned to take her to Tobago just for a weekend because we knew she is an intelligent, smart child and we know she would be doing well so we thought to reward her we would take her on a mini vacation.” She said her daughter was putting on a brave front for the family. Nicole described her husband as “very intelligent, very ambitious.”
“There is nothing negative anyone could say about him. He was a great husband, father, brother, son, everything you could think about, a friend. Anytime you need help (he would say) ‘Aye doh worry nah I will help you out, do not stress,’” she said. Durgadeen’s funeral is scheduled for Thursday from the house of mourning then to the Shore of Peace, Mosquito Creek, La Romaine for cremation under Hindu rites.