Crash survivor urges motorists to be careful on roads

Accident survivor Elsa DeFreitas is warning motorists to be careful on the roads, as according to her, “you don’t have to be speeding to get into an accident”.

DeFreitas was involved in an accident last Friday, November 27th, on the stretch of road outside George Browne’s residence in Ratho Mill.{{more}}

The accident which took place at around 10.45 a.m., claimed the lives of two persons, Elsa’s husband Oswald DeFreitas and her friend Jillian Nanton, while another of Elsa’s friends, Joel Edwards, was severely injured in the crash.

The four were travelling to Kingstown from Park Hill in P7135, a blue Daihatsu jeep, owned and driven by Oswald, when they collided with H1131, a red Toyota omnibus, owned by Lenford Veira of Richmond Hill and driven by Joel Veira of the same address. Veira was also injured.

Speaking from her bed at the Female Surgical ward of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, Elsa said that she is extremely sad about what happened, but she doesn’t blame anyone for the accident.

“…come like it just happened like that. I understand that people say accidents take place there,” said the mother of three.

She revealed that she had been married for 25 years and that her husband was a loving and caring person who loved life.

“I didn’t expect this to happen. He was real kind and loving to his whole family,” said Elsa of her husband, who was a sailor. She said that Oswald was home on vacation since September and was expected back at work in January.

In relation to the accident, Elsa said that the crash happened so quickly that she can’t remember exactly what happened, but remembers being taken out of the vehicle while it was still overturned.

“It was like I was in a different world, while the vehicle was going over I could hear sounds like glass breaking, but I didn’t know what was happening”, said Elsa who revealed that when the vehicle stopped moving, and she regained her senses, she looked down and saw her husband below her with blood gushing from his mouth.

“…I knew he had died when I caught myself and look down below me. I saw him lying on his face and I saw blood rushing out his mouth; he didn’t move, just blood gushing out,” recalls Elsa, who added that both she and her husband were wearing seat belts and someone had to cut her seatbelt off with a knife to free her from the wreckage.

She said that the other two passengers were friends of theirs and after the crash she could hear Nanton talking before she and Edwards were taken to the MCMH. Edwards is currently a patient at the Male Surgical ward, where he is in a critical condition.

Elsa said that she is expected to undergo surgery to repair her right arm, which is broken in two places.(LC)