Toddler, 3, killed

ONE MOMENT Raytee Khotai was cradling her three-year-old son Suresh Khotai in her arms in the family van and the next thing, she was crying on top of his lifeless body, which lay on the road in Moruga.

This was the tragic end to an Easter Monday beach lime at Grand Chemin beach where the Khotai family had spent the day. Suresh was thrown from his mother’s arm, out of the van and onto the road, after his father swerved his Toyota Hilux to avoid hitting an oncoming vehicle.

The child suffered a fractured skull and died of massive head injuries. Barely able to contain her grief, Raytee told Newsday the tragedy occurred about 6.30 pm when the family was returning from Grand Chemin Beach.

Her husband, she said, was driving north along the Moruga Main Road when upon reaching a corner he swerved to avoid hitting a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction. Suresh Sr said the Hilux almost overturned and the sharp jerk caused his son to be pitched from his mother’s arm.

Raytee recalled that moments before the accident she was holding her son and asking him if he was hungry. “He said ‘no mommy’ and put his finger in his mouth and close his eyes. Then the next minute the accident happened,” she said, adding that her daughter Gail, 13, was in another car with her sister.

Raytee said when the vehicle stopped she realised her son was not in the vehicle. She told Newsday that she climbed out of the smashed windshield and began looking for her baby. “He was lying on the road,” she said.

“He was bleeding from his ears and nose and had bruises on his neck and head. I just pick him up and try to give him breath. But he was unconscious.” Her husband flagged down a passing motorist and they took the child to the Princes Town Health Centre, but it was too late.

Speaking about the beach lime, Raytee said she remembered him playing and having fun on the beach. “He had a real good time. We bought a kite for him and he was real anxious to fly it. Then he was playing with his bucket and spade in the sand on the beach.

He was having a lot of fun with our family and friends.”

She added that Suresh wanted a teddy bear, a truck and a cake for his birthday which would have been celebrated on June 4.

An autopsy done at the San Fernando Mortuary yesterday by Dr Rajendra Persad revealed the child died of a fractured skull.