Trinidad: Acting Chief Justice remains in critical condition after crash

CMC – Acting Chief Justice Wendell Kangaloo, remained in hospital with head and facial injuries, following an early morning car crash on Sunday that left four people dead and injured two of the judge’s bodyguards, according to government and hospital officials.



Justice Kangaloo underwent emergency surgery along with two members of his security detail at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.



Acting Prime Minister Jack Warner told journalists that the judge has facial fractures and has a serious head injury.



Witnesses said that around 5.45 a.m. yesterday, a car heading west on the Orange Grove section of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway, the main east-west thoroughfare, crossed the median and slammed into the sport utility vehicle carrying Justice Kangaloo which was travelling in the opposite direction.



The police said that all four occupants of the car were killed as it split into several pieces and tossed them from the vehicle. They died on the spot.





A statement from the Judiciary at the Hall of Justice in the capital said the two police officers in Justice Kangaloo’s security detail suffered “less serious” injuries.



The Judiciary's spokesman Jones P. Madeira told reporters that the Acting Chief Justice was first taken to the Arima Medical Facility, after the accident where he was stabilised before being transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex for emergency surgery.



Justice Kangaloo, an appeals court judge, was acting for Chief Justice Ivor Archie who was due to return from overseas on Sunday night.



Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar expressed her sympathy to the families of the victims and to Justice Kangaloo’s relatives.



Warner told reporters that the prime minister assured Kangaloo’s mother that “whatever is needed for him to get back to normalcy the government will do including but not limited to if he has to go overseas for treatment”.



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