Accident victim could have been saved

Relatives of Annise Sakawath said if people who stopped to take pictures of her lying in a drain after she was thrown from her best friend’s car during an accident on Wednesday, had gone to her aid, she may have survived.

Speaking to Newsday at the family’s Penal Rock Road, Penal home this morning, Anneshah Sakawath said although her sister Annise was pronounced dead on the scene, onlookers said they saw her gasping before an ambulance got to the scene.

The accident took place near the Scott’s Road Junction around noon on Wednesday. “There were a lot of people there, people making videos and taking pictures and all the time she was in the drain with her face in water,” Anneshah said. “If somebody would have turned her over at least, she may have been able to survive.”

One of Sakawath’s friends Priya Samuel was driving her family’s Toyota Ceres sedan when she skidded off the roadway and hit an electricity pole. The vehicle flipped and Annise was thrown out the back windscreen and into the drain. Samuel and another friend Vinita Sookraj were also injured.

Sookraj who was in the front passenger seat is warded at San Fernando General Hospital with six broken ribs and a punctured lung. She was rushed into emergency surgery on Wednesday night. Samuel is also warded at the hospital but her relatives say she is in a stable but serious condition.

Annise and Sookraj would have both celebrated their 22nd birthdays on Sunday.