Three-year-old Andrew Mascal was spared death yesterday morning as he slept between his parents when a car ploughed into their bedroom landing on top of their bed and killing his mother on the spot. Andrew, his mother Donna Mascal, 39, and his father Anthony were asleep around 1 am yesterday in her family’s of Palmiste Main Road, Longdenville rented apartment when the incident occurred. The family had been renting the apartment for the past three years.
The trio remained trapped under the car, a white AD wagon, for over an hour as fire service officials tried to remove the car. A hiab was eventually used to remove the car through the roof of the bedroom, but Donna was pronounced dead on the scene. Andrew suffered burns to his forehead and other parts of his body and his father suffered a broken collarbone. They were both taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility and then transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt. Hope were they remained warded up to last night.
Donna’s other three children, Samantha, 17, Shania, 13 and Sean, 10 were asleep in another bedroom and were not hurt in the incident. The wagon was driven by a 22-year-old man of Fleming Street Longdenville, police said. In an interview with the T&T Guardian neighbor Charles Seeraj, recalled hearing Anthony crying out for his wife and child.
“I heard the bang, went outside and saw the car inside their bedroom,” he said. “I saw two guys in the road and when I went across I heard the father asking over and over, ‘where my son, where my wife?’.” Surrounded by relatives at her grandparents’ Pokhor Road, Longdenville yesterday, Donna’s eldest child Samantha recalled that her mother’s dream was for her Housing Development Corporation (HDC) application to be successful as she wanted to move her family away from the busy roadway.
“She always used to say she can’t wait to get a HDC house cause people does drive too hard in front by us and there used to be plenty accidents,” said Samantha. “She say she wanted to move out from there because she didn’t know what could happen.” Donna’s mother, Carmen Wellington, 60, sat in a state of shock, unable to believe her daughter was dead. Wellington said she last saw Donna alive around 9.40 pm on Saturday night.