Court hears how family was killed by ‘speeding’ car

The driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Brian Browne of Toco, is on trial before Madame Justice Alice Yorke-Soo Hon at the City’s Third Criminal Court charged with the unlawful killing of 34-year-old Cecilia "Vena" Bousignac and her children Crystal, 11, Christopher, 7 and Cleveland Jnr, 4, after crashing into them as they walked along the Toco Main Road on the morning of March 23, 1999. A fourth child, one-year-old Catherine, survived the accident.

Witness Dennis Cave of Toco Road, Vega de Oropouche, testified to hearing an "extraordinary bang" as he knelt in prayer in the front bedroom of his house at around 7.35 on the fateful morning. He said the "bang" sounded like a vehicle had hit a large animal, like a cow. Cave, who is a retired SRP inspector, said when he looked out of the window he saw a vehicle swerve from the western to the eastern side of the road. The front portion of the car, he said, was on a grass verge, and the back of the car was in the road.

According to Cave, when the car swerved, he noticed that it left an "object" in its path. He later found out that that "object" had been the bodies of Bousignac and her three older children. He said it was customary for the mother to be walking her children to school at that time of the day. The witness said when the vehicle came to a stop on the eastern side of the road, two men and a woman with one hand alighted, and the driver ran down the road shouting.

Cave recalled calling the police before going to the scene, where he saw Bousignac and the children lying in the grass unconscious.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Israel Khan SC, Cave maintained that he was wearing his glasses, even as he was praying on that morning. Wearing his glasses at all times, he said, was an order given to him by the Licensing Authority.

Another witness, Sumintra Saroop, told the court that she had spoken to the family moments before the accident, as she passed them on the road on her way to work at the Toco dump.

She said both she and the Bousignacs had been walking along the left hand side of the road heading in opposite directions.

After walking approximately 25 feet away from them, Saroop said, a car passed by her "speeding fast" and seconds later she heard a bang. When she looked back she didn’t see Bousignac and the children, and when she walked to the scene of the accident she saw them, with the exception of the baby, lying on the grass at the side of the road. They appeared to be dead, she said.

Attorney Ronald Boynes appears with Khan for Browne, while State attorneys Nalini Singh and Tricia Hudlin are prosecuting.

Hearing resumes today.