Driving without a licence — teen killed in accident

BETTY ANN BHAGGAN, a fruit vendor who sells outside San Fernando General Hospital, has seen hundreds of ambulances rushing persons to and from the hospital on a daily basis.

As fate would have it, the ambulance which sped past her shortly after noon yesterday was carrying the body of her 18-year-old son Danny Kissoon. Kissoon, of Mount Moriah Road, San Fernando, was pronounced dead on arrival at SFGH, a victim of a head-on crash on the Golconda Connector Road, near the Cross Crossing interchange. Kissoon was driving a rented Kia Pride car, when around 12.30 pm, while attempting to overtake a vehicle, he swerved into the path of a three-tonne Kia pick-up van, driven by Dial Desante. Police were told by Bhaggan that her son was not the holder of a driver’s licence.

Desante, 31, of Caroni Savannah Road, a driver for Rupa Enterprises, was heading towards the SFGH carrying a load of paper towels and toilet paper. Although fracturing both legs, Desante escaped more serious injuries. One of Kissoon’s neighbours, Sheldon Joseph, said the deceased whom he knew as “Fatty” came to his (Kissoon’s) apartment around noon. “He was moving busy, like he just came home to bathe because he said he was going to see his girlfriend,” Joseph said.

A nurse in the Accident and Emergency Department who recognised the deceased, who often assisted his mother at the fruit stall, alerted Bhaggan to what happened. Bhaggan told police she did not know of her son’s whereabouts prior to the accident since she last saw him on Wednesday.  Visiting the scene yesterday was Inspector Terry Khan, Ag Sgt Siew and PC Rosan of the Ste Madeleine Police Station.