Twenty-one-year-old Mahendranauth Singh, of Lot 202 Industry Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara was yesterday remanded to prison when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court accused of causing the death of two children in an accident at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo last Sunday.
The mechanic had pleaded not guilty to two separate charges of causing death by dangerous driving, another of failing to render assistance to injured persons and another of failing to stop after an accident.
He denied that he drove motor car PLL 6744 in a dangerous manner to the public which resulted in an accident that caused the deaths of Amisha Alli and Ricky Kumar on August 16.
He also denied that on the same day, he drove the said car and was involved in the accident and failed to render assistance to the injured persons by not taking them to a registered medical facility or hospital.
Singh is also accused of failing to stop his car after the accident.
Prosecutor Denise Griffith stated that on the day in question, Singh was proceeding east along the northern side of Tuschen Public Road when he struck down the pedestrians including Alli and Kumar who were standing on the southern side of the road.
The prosecutor noted that Singh was caught by police ranks at Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara at a roadblock.
However, Vic Puran who represented Singh stated that “where this incident had occurred is a straight road”. He said that if his client was travelling east on the road then the children should have been on the northern side of the road.
He said that there were several markings on the road made by the police; one in particular was a circle with an “x” in the middle of it to show where exactly the collision took place.
He said that this mark is on the southern side of the road “so if my client had maintained his lane he would have killed eight children”.
Puran went on to say that “the children ran from the southern side of the road to the northern side and so the entire width of the road was blocked by children running”.
He said that his client in an attempt to avoid hitting the children had swerved to the right “and the two children who died had run back across the road”. He reasoned that if the children had continued running north, then his client would have avoided hitting them.
The lawyer went on to say that while at the police station he had asked a policeman to find out from the post-mortem report what side of their bodies the children were hit on, stating that this will show if his client had hit the children “without excuse”.
He said that the post-mortem report, according to what his client had told him about the accident, should show that the children were hit on the right side of their bodies and “that would exonerate my client”.
“I know that this was a very mournful accident because when I looked at the boy (Kumar) I thought it was my son and I myself almost died”, said Puran.
The lawyer then asked “what if his story (Singh’s) is true?” and added that “then that is why there are no skid marks to show a halt on the road”. The lawyer said that he had visited the scene of the accident and had made these observations.
Puran then went on to say that as it relates to his client not rendering assistance to the injured persons, an angry crowd that had gathered just after the accident had attacked and scared him away.
Puran further stated that “because my client is not familiar with the West Coast of Demerara area he missed the Leonora police station” as he was “allegedly” fleeing the scene. He said that after the accident his client was proceeding in a western direction on the WCD public road so he did not see the police station. He said that that police station did not have a sign directly in front of it but to the left of it so his client just drove on without noticing it.
Puran then applied for bail for his client on the grounds that Singh posed no risk of flight and that if released he would return to court when ordered to.
Prosecutor Griffith then stated that Singh had given the police varying accounts of the incident, “one time he said that he swerved to avoid colliding with a bus and another time he told the police that he swerved to avoid hitting the children”.
The prosecutor noted that “there are indeed skid marks on the road and the even so the defendant never stopped”.
She reasoned that even if Singh was speeding he could not have missed the Leonora Police Station since it is the easiest police station to access.
She said that roadblocks had to be put up in order to capture Singh and that it was information received and the blood stains on the car that alerted the police in the Den Amstel area.
Griffith also reasoned that Singh could not have been driving at such a fast pace along the WCD public road without being familiar with it and that he had to be speeding to completely severe Alli’s head from her body.
The magistrate subsequently ordered that Singh be remanded to prison on the grounds that he posed a risk of flight and also ordered that the matter be transferred to the Leonora Magistrate’s Court for August 25.
Reports are that Alli, 10 and her cousin, Kumar, 12, were heading to the Tuschen Mosque for a seminar along with two other relatives and their grandmother, Hamidan Haq, when the incident occurred. Alli was decapitated while Kumar suffered head injuries and broken bones.
Singh reportedly sped away and several villages away, hit and killed a dog at Meten-meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara.
The prosecutor had told Stabroek News that she was not aware of Singh having any passengers in the car when the accident occurred. (Ayanna Blair)
