Diwali for one Cummings Lodge family will not be like previous years after the head of their household lost his life following a motorcycle accident in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

Dead is Roland Phagoo, 53, a former employee of Metro who resided at 879 Third Field, Cummings Lodge Housing Scheme.

The man was riding his motorcycle along the Houston Public Road when he lost control around a bend and slammed into a utility pole. He reportedly died on the spot.

There was a sombre atmosphere in the man’s home yesterday when this newspaper visited, and his wife Kowsilla Phagoo told this newspaper that her husband had left home about midnight last night and insisted that he wanted to visit his daughter who lives at Prospect, located on the East Bank of Demerara.

She said she was at home when two young men arrived and informed her of her husband’s death.

The family was told that the police noticed a telephone number in the man’s possession and called it. It turned out to be a friend of Phagoo, and they advised her of his death. The friend then sent her sons to inform the man’s family.

Relatives told this newspaper that the man was at a nearby shop most of the day yesterday and so was a little drunk.

“He was drinking earlier in the day and so he was a little high and so we didn’t want him to go anywhere, and we were trying to stop him but he jump on his motorbike and left,” Phagoo’s wife said.

She said her husband had decided to go to his daughter’s home after he had called her several times and found her cell phone turned off. Relatives said they always tried to prevent Phagoo from riding when he is intoxicated for fear of an accident.

The man’s family des-cribed him as jovial, friendly and kind, and a music lover who would be missed.

Phagoo has left a wife, four children and three grandchildren to mourn his passing.