Sealots Overpass construction at last

Two of the three survivors were present yesterday, when Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan announced commencement of the long awaited Sealots Pedestrian Overpass at the corner of Production Avenue and the Beetham Highway, a few metres away from where the accident occurred.

Haydee Paul and her two daughters Shakira, seven, and Akasha, eight, were killed when they were struck by a car driver by a policeman as they tried to cross the Beetham Highway. Ryan Rampersad, Amanda Lall and Abigail Assing were also knocked down by the policeman’s car but survived, although they were badly injured. Rampersad is now wheelchair- bound.

Lall wept yesterday as she recalled how her children are now her primary caregivers since she has been unable to work ever since the accident. “My head hurts constantly because my skull was fractured and there was bleeding in the brain. I can’t walk for long distances.

In the small house where I live I can only move around to go to the toilet and the bath.

“My children have done enough for me. I can’t thank the Lord enough for them. They treat me as they would a baby. I want to walk again and be normal but I am in pain. I have steel pins in my arm and my leg,” she cried. Rampersad, who was 20 at the time of the accident and a father of two, said he wants motorists to drive with more care. Speaking with a constant slur, Rampersad said it is important for drivers to understand that speed kills.

He suffered frontal cranial injury which left him with a speech impediment and in a wheelchair.

The overpass is expected to be completed within five months and should cost about $10 million, according to Minister Sinanan.

Delivering the feature address, Sinanan said when he was first made minister, plans for the overpass were already there but there were some challenges with the land.

“I told them if they can’t sort out the land, go and start to dig and the owners of the land will come forward. No one came forward and this project should have been done a long time ago. I have to admit there is a lot of bureaucracy especially when you have to deal with different agencies. So when you get to the point where you get the break down like this, you feel like you have achieved something,” Sinanan said.