Toddler killed near home

So said Sabita Ramcharan, aunt of 18-month-old Rajiv Ragoonauth, who was knocked down and killed near his Couva home on Friday afternoon.

Ramcharan said she held Rajiv’s hand and took him inside her home at Mango Alley moments before he ran into the road and was knocked down by a fish vendor’s van. Ramcharan said Rajiv had been “like her son.” His mother, Kamalday, 31, died of kidney failure ten months ago.

Ramcharan said Rajiv slept at her house every night since his mother died.

“I loved that child so much,” she said. “Everyday when I went to work I told the children to watch him. I didn’t know that he was going to die in front of my eyes.”

Ramcharan told Sunday Newsday she did not blame the driver for the accident.

“He wouldn’t have known the child was behind the van. He saw me take the child inside the house. He was reversing in the neighbour’s yard.”

According to police reports, the fatal accident occurred around 4.30 pm when a 29-year-old fish vendor, of Carlos Street, Couva, was reversing into the yard of a house. The vendor, who was driving a grey Ford pick-up van, checked behind his van and saw the 18-month-old on the ground under the vehicle.

A post mortem conducted at the San Fernando Mortuary yesterday and witnessed by Rajiv’s father, Bridgemohan Ragoonauth, concluded that the infant died from head injuries. He had suffered a cracked skull. Ramcharan said she had just bought fish from the vendor and had gone back inside her house with Rajiv.

“I was holding the bowl of fish in one hand and Rajiv’s hand in the next, and we went inside. I just let him go to put the fish in the fridge when I missed him (Rajiv). Next thing, I heard him bawling and I ran outside. Rajiv was on the ground bleeding a lot from his mouth and nose.”

Ramcharan said the fish vendor had apologised for the incident.

“He picked up the child and started to bawl ‘Oh God, oh God! What I do?’ He carried me to the health centre. He said he had two children of his own and he could never do a thing like that. He did not know the child was behind the van.”

Ramcharan’s mother, Sookragie Ragoonauth, agreed that Rajiv was a “brisk” child.

“As you make a mistake with him, he gone,” the 67-year-old woman said. She said Rajiv was her youngest grandchild, and the second she had lost to a car accident. Seven years ago, another grandson, Sieunarine Ragoonauth, 17, died in a car accident near the Learning Resource Centre in Couva. Yesterday the family were making arrangements for Rajiv’s funeral which will take place on Tuesday. Couva Police are continuing investigations.