11th Annual Road Safety Awards
A solemn awards ceremony was held on Wednesday 11th June 2025 to honour and recognise the nation’s frontline heroes— first responders, whose daily work on Trinidad and Tobago’s roads saves lives, comforts the grieving, and prevents tragedies that never make the headlines.
The 11th Annual Road Safety Awards, hosted by road safety advocacy group Arrive Alive, in partnership with the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, honoured eighty-two personnel from stakeholder agencies: emergency medical technicians (EMTs), paramedics, fire service personnel, police officers, and traffic wardens, for their dedication in the face of the trauma they experience while diligently carrying out their duty.
In her remarks, President of Arrive Alive Sharon Inglefield highlighted the significance of the ceremony as it is “the only one of its kind to recognize and celebrate you, our first responders, for the incredible job you are doing.” Mrs. Inglefield acknowledged the courage first responders continue to show not just in the line of duty, but after. Recognizing their challenges, she stated, “you… play a proactive preventative approach in saving us from serious crashes, injuries, and fatalities but… also suffer post-traumatic stress as a consequence of responding to these serious collisions.”
During her address, Mrs. Inglefield emphasized that the persistent work of Arrive Alive, spanning two decades, has yielded significant results, positioning Trinidad and Tobago as a recent global success story in road safety. She proudly announced that, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Status Report for Road Safety 2023, Trinidad & Tobago stands as “one of only 10 countries that managed to meet the goal of 50% fewer lives lost during the last Decade of Action for Road Safety.” She continued, “The internationally recognized policies and laws that our NGO supports, and which have been introduced locally, have saved lives, have made a difference, have resulted in a change in the behavior of many of the nation’s road users.”
She promised that the NGO, is “committed to continue to support you our first responders. Whether it is to trouble-shoot for you for the tools you need… your calibrated breathalyzer units, speed guns that include night vision lights, gloves for our fire service personnel, properly maintained working vehicles and of course, the appropriate policy and law to enable you to continue to do your jobs.”
Mrs. Inglefield called on policymakers to continue protecting road users, as she lobbied for more government-enacted road safety enhancements noting, “We are now into our 2nd Decade to Action for Road Safety which ends in 2030 and we are confident that our Minister will want to achieve the same result as achieved in the last decade, that is, a 50% reduction in serious injuries. She pointed out that, “Arrive Alive supports a revamped licensing system that includes hazard perception and risk management. We support educating and training for drivers prior to the privilege of obtaining a driver’s license, for all classes of vehicles.” To bring the point of road safety home, Mrs. Inglefield revealed, the economic impact of the issue saying, “Road traffic injuries and fatalities negatively impact our country’s Gross Domestic Product by an average of approximately 3% according to the World Health Organization.”
One of the ceremony’s most powerful moments came from Abijah Lewis, a young EMT and Paramedic student of Global Medical Response Trinidad and Tobago, who shared her deeply moving story of surviving a motor vehicle crash while on duty. With raw emotion, she described the lingering effects, both physical and psychological, that continue to haunt her. “The physical pain eventually faded but the emotional impact still haunts me.” She continued, “As an EMT, I witness [crashes] daily. I’ve seen bodies mangled in wrecks that once were cars. I’ve heard the screams of the injured and the silence of those we couldn’t save. Families destroyed in an instant. I’ve held hands of those taking their last breath and comforted crying children still strapped into car seats of overturned vehicles, crying for parents that would never again answer.”
Ms. Lewis reminded the audience that behind every road crash statistic is a broken family, an empty seat at the dinner table, a life needlessly lost.
Another deeply moving victim impact statement came from Mahendra Maharaj and his family, survivors of the tragic Mosquito Creek crash of 2009 that claimed five lives and injured seventeen others, the youngest victim being just four years old. Maharaj recounted waking up with severe injuries, only to learn that his young son, Sachin, aged nine, had died in the collision. Mr. Maharaj bravely recalled his pain that day hearing the First responders call out, one by one, that they had lost another victim, five in total.
The victims’ testimonies underscored why prevention, and policy must go hand-in-hand with compassion.
Delivering the keynote address, Senator the Honourable Eli Zakour, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation emphasised that the road to zero fatalities requires sustained, collective effort by declaring: “As Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, I am committed to transforming our country’s national approach to road safety through systematic reform and data-driven results. In line with the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety, Trinidad and Tobago’s National Road Safety Plan is the blueprint for reducing fatalities and serious injuries. Our strategy is guided by three key principles: Education, Enforcement, and Engineering.”
He outlined initiatives to strengthen traffic coordination, scale community education, and increase visible enforcement in high-risk areas – actions aligned to the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, which ends in 2030. Minister Zakour announced his ministry will be ramping up enforcement by increasing the on-the-ground presence of Traffic Wardens, especially in high-risk and high-traffic areas. The Minister stated, “This is a critical element of our road safety strategy. A visible enforcement presence encourages compliance, deters dangerous behaviours such as illegal overtaking or pedestrian endangerment, and provides real-time assistance during incidents.”
With support from dedicated sponsors and the tireless advocacy of Arrive Alive, the Road Safety Awards continue to be a moment of reflection, recognition, and resolve.
The lasting sentiment for the first responders was aptly stated by Ms. Inglefield, as she said, “We must all share the common goal of nil serious crashes, nil injuries, nil fatalities because EVERY LIFE MATTERS! We salute you our first responders who, daily, must deal with the consequences of poor decisions! We appreciate all your hard work! We encourage you to continue to do your job, regardless of the challenges.”
