Truck driver on 2 counts of motor manslaughter

Bharath Ramsammy, 45, appeared before a Port-of-Spain magistrate yesterday charged with two counts of motor man-slaughter. He appeared before Magis-trate Christine Charles in the Port-of-Spain Tenth Court,  formally charged for causing the deaths of two persons via a road accident in 2004. Ramsammy, of 43 Knaggs Street, Caroni, was charged with causing the deaths of eight-year-old Shane Ramdeo and his mother, 31-year-old Carol Sampath Ramdeo by dangerous driving.

The accident occurred on September 11, 2004, along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. After the charges were read, Charles set bail in the sum of $65,000 pending a tracing of the accused. Ramsammy, who was not represented by an attorney, pleaded with the magistrate for leniency, saying he did not have the money to pay his bail, and that he also had five children to maintain. “These are very serious offences, sir, and I have to set bail based on this,” said the magistrate. The mother and son were both killed after the husband of the deceased, Chabinath Ramdeo, stopped along the highway to purchase pewah from a vendor.

While purchasing the pewah, he was alerted to a screeching sound, and looked around in time to see a Jusamco Ltd truck drag his car with his wife, son and a relative about 20 yards over the edge of the highway before landing on the hood of the vehicle. The elections and boundaries em-ployee and her son were immediately crushed to death. WP Cpl Carol Hickson of the Barataria Police Station laid the charges. The matter was adjourned to April 25. The accused will reappear in the city’s Seventh Court.