Dubious procedure after fatal accident

THE EDITOR: Please grant me space in your newspaper to express my views concerning the state of road carnage and the laws that govern such in Trinidad. On Tuesday August 10 2004 at approximately 8.15 pm, my dear sister was on her way home after receiving her graduation certificate from SBCS. She had gotten out of her means of transportation and was literally already across the Old Southern Main Road, which she crosses every day, when a woman travelling in the opposite direction plowed into her, which resulted in her untimely death. She got out of her vehicle, got on her cell phone, waited for the ambulance to get there, (this took 45 minutes) and then left for home. This woman did not even think it was necessary to go to the hospital to enquire. To her I say, may God have mercy on your soul when you die, but rest assured that my family and I will do everything legally possible to ensure that you get tried for the manslaughter you performed.

To the general public, this may appear as being a bit harsh but please follow the statistics carefully. She had several vehicular accidents prior to this and then to add insult to injury, she had another after. Yes you read that right. You see, two days after her actions killed my sister, the cops somehow saw it necessary to give her back her car and her drivers’ licence. This was bought to my attention by the sergeant of the Caroni police station who said according to the laws of TT, this woman had to get back both her car and her licence pending investigation. To him I say, I am not familiar with the legal system in TT when it comes to such a situation, but I find it hard to believe that this is the procedure in an accident that resulted in someone’s death. Any civilised republic would deem it necessary that this vehicle be impounded and the driver’s licence revoked until the investigation is completed.

I then asked how would the investigation continue now that the car is gone and certainly being repaired? The response to this was that an officer of the Licensing office on Wrightson road did some investigating and took the necessary pictures that will help. I also enquired if there was any counselling available to drivers involved in such an accident with regards to emotional trauma. He said no, Trinidad does not have such facilities. What? Trinidad does not have any psychologist? That’s all that’s needed for a psychiatric evaluation, no multi-million dollar facility. Also, how dare you tell me that she is being investigated for reckless driving and endangerment of others? My sister is dead and I demand that this charge be escalated to mans-laughter. This reckless driver was allowed to return to driving based on her own discretion, and she did so the very next day. No remorse.

You left a man without his wife, two without a mother, one without a daughter, eight without a sister, 17 without an aunt, five without a sister-in-law and several more others without a friend and co-worker. Such was the extent of your careless action and yet you thought it necessary to drive your car the next day. Have you no emotions? You yourself must be at least three of the above to some and yet your actions continue? I hope every time you wash that weapon of yours, a little bit of blood trickles down so you will never forget what you did. To remind you how you never called nor waited to hear what the injuries of my sister were and how you got back in your car and decided that you were going to drive again. The only comfort my family and I have is in knowing that Heaven is a little more beautiful now that she is there and that she is in good hands. Once again, may God have mercy on your soul and you will be hearing from me soon.

To date you still haven’t called to say anything nor has any flowers from “anonymous” showed up. To those at the helm of TT’s traffic laws, I say this. We as Trinidadians try to copy everything from the US. Nice cars, nice restaurants, etc. We bring the best cars home but we don’t have the roads to accommodate such.Why can’t we adopt some of the NY laws as well when it comes to the cars? Why is it that drivers can drive again after killing someone? Whatever happened to the pedestrian always being right? Why was the car that killed my sister released? Can anyone who knows about the law when it comes to this situation, please let me know if this procedure is right or legal.

ANIL RAMHARACK
Port-of-Spain