Victims left with permanent scars

Jul 11, 2011 News

By Leon Suseran
The eight-year-old boy who survived the fatal accident that took the life of his sister has been experiencing excruciating pains, and may not be able to walk again for a very long time.

Paralysed eight-year-old Vijai Ramnauth spends the entire day in bed; his mom and dad, Anirud holds up a picture of his dead daughter.

According to the boy’s mother Tasha Ramnauth, the family wants justice to ensure that the driver of the car never repeats his carless actions again. The man, Mahendra Ramanan, called Bangat, 36, of Number Two Village, West Coast Berbice, allegedly drove motor car PMM 8812 in a dangerous manner, causing the death of nine-year-old Jaswattie Ramnauth, on June 20. Her brother Vijai Ramnauth remains temporarily paralysed
The children were pupils of the Cotton Tree Primary School and were in the process of writing end of term examinations when the accident occurred.
They were on their way home at about 08:25 hrs after they were told by teachers that they were not required at school in the morning, since exams were to be written only during the afternoon session.
The car, which was speeding, careened off the West Berbice Public Road, hitting the two children before crashing into a concrete fence. The children were knocked some distance away as a result of the heavy impact. The girl died on the spot while the boy sustained broken limbs and head injuries. He was whisked away to the Georgetown Hospital.
When Kaieteur News visited the survivor at his home at Lot 15 Ketting Dam, D’ Edward, West Coast Berbice recently, Vijai Ramnauth was resting in a bed in the ‘bottom house’, wearing a neck brace and with his left leg in cast.
He did not get to complete his examinations in school and is pretty uncertain about what will happen to his dream—like any other eight-year-old—of getting an education.
“He’s coming around but it will take time because a lot of pain. In the night, he screams for his belly, sometimes his feet,” his mother said. “With a knock like that, you gotta expect pain.”
The boy is receiving medical attention from two medical clinics at the Georgetown Public Hospital and the family related that every trip to the city hospital takes a hard financial toll on them. They have to pay for the entire back seat of cars for each trip to the city since the boy’s injured leg has to be in a comfortable position. “Them people this put me in a lot of expense and left me, and me never see one of them. Is till in the corner them pick them children this up and just kill one and left one sick and not one of them has the manners to come,” she pointed out. “He bruk she [Jaswattie] up like biscuit.”
She said neither the driver nor his family visited the family to extend sympathies or check on concerns for the injured boy. Ramnauth added that the accident has resulted in her son becoming “a baby all over again.”

Kellawattie Ragunandan with her paralytic son, Satesh

The same driver also hit 12- year- old Sateshwar Ragunandan with the car in 2009, resulting in the boy becoming paralyzed. His mother, Kellawattie Ragunandan, said that she too wants justice. The accident, she said, has left permanent ‘scars’ which are still evident to this day. “He can’t do anything for himself; he can’t walk properly; he can’t even eat. He never went back to school. He could stay just so and get a ‘shut- down’ with he brain. He doesn’t have any balance in his body. He receives treatment from Bone Specialist and Therapy in Georgetown. I need justice, because he always drunk and drive, he never sober. He got away when he knock this boy down too, and he say [he hit] dog,” the woman said. Ramanan had offered $300,000 to Ragunandan in 2009 to settle the matter.
The Ramnauths stated that they have not ruled out accepting a settlement from the driver for the matter and “would like to meet with the family”.
Ramnauth, who escaped from the scene of the June, 2011 accident and surrendered to Blairmont Police a day later, appeared before Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo, charged with three counts: driving in a dangerous manner thus causing the death of nine-year-old Jaswattie Ramnauth; the second, on the said day, place and time he failed to render assistance to Jaswattie Ramnauth or to take her to a recognized medical practitioner; and that after being involved in an accident he failed to report the said accident to the nearest police station or to a police constable within 24 hours.
He will return to court on July 11.