A BUS driver transporting school children was beaten at the hands of two men who were angry that he told them about their parking on the corner of a street in Caparo.
The 53-year-old man was rescued by his wife who then beat the men with a piece of iron.
The two who beat the driver, escaped in their vehicle, a black Nissan Almera, bloodied with wounds more severe than the victim.
The incident occurred at around 8.30 am on Wednesday, when he had just dropped off a group of children at the Todd’s Road Roman Catholic Primary School as the bell rang for classes to start.
The man was spotted by AZP News when he entered the Todd’s Road Health Centre next to the school seeking treatment just before 9 am.
He told medical staff that he was just beaten by two men.
After he was treated, he told AZP News outside the facility that his injuries were not that serious.
He said, “I am grateful to be alive, the kind of lash I was getting. Good thing my wife was there because I myself am not able to defend myself. I myself nursing an injury.”
He lamented about the crime situation in the country,
“For human beings to just brazenly do that to another person, it tells a lot about them. Our hands are tied in terms of trying to fix the situation in our country. It seems to be something that we are nuturing from a young age.”
The bus driver, a well reputed man in the village and the school, said upon entering Fletcher’s Road, a side street off Todd’s Road – the street where the school and health centre are located, he observed two men doing maintenance work at a cell tower at the corner of the streets. Their vehicle was parked almost on the corner.
AZP News would have passed the same vehicle earlier.
He said he told the men to park their vehicles better so as not to cause accidents on the narrow street that is usually crowded with parked vehicles at peak times.
He continued on his way and returned about 30 minutes later to see the vehicle still there.
He said the men started to argue with him for telling them about their bad parking and that he was “jumbeeing them” for trying to make an honest day work.
A woman police officer from the village told the men to park better and was verbally abused with the men asking her if she felt she was their mother that she could tell them what to do, the bus driver said.
He said he was advised by the officer to continue what he was doing.
Taking the advice, he continued driving into the street to drop the children to school.
The bus driver walks with a limp as his foot was previously injured by a trap gun.
He said, “I came in the school here and dropped off my kids, and when I turned the vehicle in the school and I reached out the gate, the vehicle reached at the front of the gate and the same car that was parked up there, rushed down in front of me and blocked me to prevent me from coming out the compound.
They come out their vehicle, approaching my vehicle. I opened the door on the one that coming to me because I don’t want them to make me sit down in the vehicle so I jumped out. I said if I have to defend myself I needed to be standing. When they approached me they just started to cuff me. “
The men, he believed, seemed to be in their 20s or 30s who were not known by him or others within the village.
He tried to cover his face and upper body with his hands to protect himself while grabbing on to the leg of one.
His wife who was purchasing pies from a vendor in front the school saw what occurred along with the vendors, other parents, residents and persons who were outside in the school’s compound.
“We goh put some slug in yuh,” the men were heard telling her husband.
The wife told AZP News, “I noticed he grabbed his jersey and they started to cuff left and right. I walked on the side of my door in the maxi and watching what happening so I just open my maxi door and I know it have a piece of iron in the back so I start to hit them and defend my husband. They hold him still and keep cuffing and cuffing.”
“I don’t know what happened after that, I just see one set of people just appear.”
A grandmother who just dropped off her grandchild to school said the bus driver has not interfered with the men and lamented as to why they accosted the driver right in front of the school.
The elderly lady initially helped the driver by providing sanitiser and support before he walked to the health centre located next door to the school.
The driver praised the health facility for the service.
He said, “This is one of the best health centres in Trinidad. I would say. They are people friendly. We have no qualms with the health centre at all. I got treated immediately.”
He also said that the usually quiet village does not have a problem with violence but traffic as there is no parking for patients on the health’s centre’s compound.
The bus driver said, “We don’t need a police patrol for violence. We need a police patrol assistance for traffic and that is where the problem started this morning with the vehicle parked up out the road.”
Police can also better advise parents to not block the narrow roadway that has only one lane each in opposite directions.
Eyewitness said the number plate of the vehicle was recorded.
A personnel at the school told AZP News that a call was made to the police emergency hotline number 999 and the nearest police station right after the incident occurred.
When AZP News left the area at 11 am, police officers did not yet arrive.
