Click to view full size

A 32-year-old woman, Natalia Noel, of San Juan, has died following a road traffic accident along the North Coast Road in Maracas on Tuesday. The driver, a 73-year-old man, was injured but is in stable condition.

Police reported that around 12:45 p.m., the driver of a white Nissan Caravan was travelling east along the North Coast Road with Noel as a passenger when a tree fell from the hillside onto the roadway, striking the right side of the vehicle. The driver lost control, veering off the road and over a precipice. The vehicle then collided with another tree approximately 60 feet down the slope.

Officers from the Maracas Bay Police Station, along with the Trinidad & Tobago Fire Service Search and Rescue Unit, responded to the scene. Both victims were transported to the Port of Spain General Hospital. Noel was pronounced dead at around 3:20 p.m., with the cause of death listed as cardiac arrest. The driver sustained multiple lacerations but no broken bones and is receiving treatment in stable condition.