Boy, 7, battles for life after struck by speeding car

Jun 13, 2014 News

– Driver tells mother brake wasn’t working

Up to press time, doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital were battling to save the life of a seven-year-old boy who was

Critical: Joseph Quallis

struck down by a speeding car at Middle Road, La Penitence, around 16:00hrs yesterday.
Joseph Quallis, a St. Pius Primary School student who resides at Lot 205 Middle Road, La Penitence, sustained injuries to his head, feet and abdomen.
According to information received, the boy was heading towards a shop near to his home when the driver reportedly lost control of his vehicle, and crashed into a fence, with the lad pinned in-between.
“He picked up my child first and then crashed into the fence. My son was mashed up,” the child’s mother, ShellyAnn Hutson recalled.
According to the mother of four, her son came home from school around 15:00hrs yesterday and changed his uniform after which he joined her in front of their yard.
“He does normally getaway and go by his cousin who lives not far from me, so I tell him not to go anywhere and I was holding his hand while standing on the bridge and I had my baby in my other hand,” the devastated mother said.
The woman further related that she cannot recall when and how her son disappeared from her.
“I see a car coming up the road in a speed and then he crash into my neighbour fence and I see when he pick up (struck) a child from the road…the child was pinned between the car and the fence, so I scream and tell he that he kill the people child, and then when the person in the yard pull out the child, I see it was my son,” the mother lamented.
The woman said that when she looked at her son, he was covered in blood. “His foot mash up and his head damage even his side damage. I couldn’t believe it was my son.”

The boy was pinned between the car and the fence.

According to the woman, the driver who is now in police custody, told her that the brake on his car wasn’t working at the time of the accident‘. “Why drive if your brake is not working properly?”
Hutson said that she along with other relatives rushed her badly injured son to the hospital.
“The doctor said if he doesn’t die within couple hours then he will definitely die tonight (last night) because his heart rate is very slow but I will pray for my son. He cannot die,” the mother posited.
Kaieteur News understands that the lad’s condition is listed as critical. He was on a life support machine up to late last night.