(Trinidad Express) As he realised the brakes on his truck were failing, driver Johnald Smith told his 18-year-old loader to jump out before the vehicle went over a cliff along the Lady Young Road in Morvant.
As Kerry McLaren jumped out the vehicle, Smith held the steering wheel in place to ensure that the teen was not run over, police said.
McLaren, of Morvant, suffered injuries to the left side of his body when he hit the ground.
Smith attempted to jump out of the truck before it hit the metal barrier but landed violently, and suffered fatal injuries.
He died on the scene yesterday.
Police said the accident took place around 12.05 p.m. near the Hilton Trinidad hotel.
The accident led to heavy traffic as Emergency Health Services responded.
The vehicle had left Caroni and was on its way to deliver a quantity of alcohol to Angostura’s Solera wine and spirits store.
Police said people in the area, upon seeing the bottles of alcohol spill out onto the road, grabbed champagne and other expensive spirits.
Some people ran through the nearby Belmont Secondary School with bags of items they stole in the aftermath of the crash.
One man recorded the looting, saying “Rum cyar done. Plenty wine”
The Sunday Express was told police will be reviewing CCTV cameras from around the school to identify people involved in what police described as looting.