The driver who struck down the Tuschen New Scheme, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), four-year-old boy in front his home, on Tuesday, could face charges soon, a source close to the investigation has confirmed.
The dead child has been identified as Ramkaran Mohan, called “Ram”, of Lot 1088 Tuschen New Housing Scheme, EBE. He took his last breath while receiving medical attention at the West Demerara Regional Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
Guyana Times International understands that the child was reportedly struck down while returning home with his five-year-old brother and teenage uncle, after they went to a shop obliquely opposite their home to purchase a ball.
Speaking with this newspaper on Wednesday, the lad’s paternal grandmother, Bibi Nazmoon Khan, related that on Tuesday around 11:30h, Ram asked for permission to go buy a ball and his mother then asked the teenager to accompany him and his brother to the shop across the road.
At the time, Ram’s mother was watching them from the veranda and they crossed the road and went into the stop. She then went back into the house and seconds later, the teenager rushed upstairs informing them that Ram was struck down and was taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital.
According to the grandmother, her adopted son along with the teenager who accompanied the brothers to the shop, related to them that he was standing at the corner of the road with each of the boys holding his hands, waiting to cross when the silver Toyota Primo, bearing registration number PVV 5084, struck the child.
“The boy was waiting to cross with the two lil boys because he see the car coming so he was waiting for it to pass before they cross but then she (the car driver) swerve into the grass corner and hook the child. She run over the child and she drag him, she didn’t stop. The boy (teenager) had to run behind the car and stop the car, and then she knows that she had the child under the car,” the grandmother explained in tears.
Khan added that the woman removed the child from under the vehicle and had someone nearby drive them to the hospital. At that point the family was still unaware of the accident. However, by the time they arrived at the medical institution, the child was being seen by the doctor and they were not allowed to see him.
According to the distraught woman, due to the severe condition of her grandson, he had to be transferred to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), where he subsequently succumbed.
“When we reach at Best (West Demerara Regional Hospital), the doctor called us in and told us that the baby skull is damaged and his brains scattered. He said there is nothing they could do, that the baby is not breathing off his own,” the woman related.
Khan said that the doctors had Ram on a life support machine, feeding him oxygen to aid with his breathing; however, he was not responding to treatment. The distressed woman added that the doctors did not give up and were trying to put in a tube to see if the child would breathe on his own but unfortunately, they lost him.
The accident occurred at about 11:30h but four-year-old Ram died sometime around 15:15h.
The boy’s mother was too distraught to talk and was seen holding her youngest of two sons’ photo, crying uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, the father expressed his anger at the way the Police Officers at the Leonora Police Station treated him on Tuesday night when he went to enquire about the case.
