Relative of crash victim to drivers: Be responsible on the road

Relatives of Nicole Figuera, the 52-year-old mother of four who was killed when the driver of a Nissan Primera car crashed into her and her husband while they were on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway on Sunday morning, are calling for drivers to be responsible on the road.

“At the end of the day they (Figuera and husband) didn’t do anything wrong, they were just going about their business. It was the irresponsibility of one person that destroyed an entire family.”

Relatives told Newsday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Monday, Figuera and her husband Christopher stopped at the side of the road on the highway in the Trincity area at about 7.30am to collect soil for her garden.

“They would always do those kinds of things because she liked gardening. So if they see a piece of land with nice dirt, they will go and dig it up,” the relative explained.

At the same time, the driver of the car – a 22-year-old man from Perkins Street, Arouca, was driving on the highway. He said he got a “bad drive” which caused him to swerve left, crashing into the couple. Figuera died and Christopher was hospitalised in a serious condition, with bones in his leg broken in several places and lacerations on the main arteries to his heart.

The driver suffered injuries to his face, neck, chest and shoulder. Two other occupants, aged 18 and 16, suffered injuries as well but none were life-threatening.

Police were unable to do a breathalyser test on the driver because he was hospitalised, but the police took a blood sample and testing was done.

Relatives described Figuera as a family-oriented, jovial and kind person. She was a teacher at St Xavier’s private school in St Joseph, where she tended to the most junior in the school.

“She always loved to take care of children. She was also the PE teacher and she taught Zoom classes during the stay-at-home period,” a relative said.

The number of road fatalities for the year now stands at 51 compared to the same period last year when the number was 59.