Driver gets one year in jail for dangerous driving, freed of causing boy’s death

A man was yesterday sentenced to one year in jail after being found guilty of several offences, including dangerous driving, but he was found not guilty of causing the death of an 11-year-old child.

Puran Ramoo was sentenced for dangerous driving but freed of causing the death of Amar Veerasammy as a result of dangerous driving. Ramoo was also charged with driving under the influence and with tinted windows. He was found guilty of driving under the influence but acquitted on the charge in relation to tinted windows.

The sentence was handed down yesterday by Magistrate Rondell Weever at the conclusion of Ramoo’s trial at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court. The matter was initially called last November at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court, where Ramoo had denied the charges and was placed on a total of $600,000 bail. (An earlier version of this story had erroneously said that Ramoo had been jailed for one year on the charge of causing death by dangerous driving.)

Amar Veerasammy
Amar Veerasammy

Veerasammy, a student of Bath Primary School, who resided at Lot D 17 Cow Dam, Bath Settlement was struck down and killed on the Bath Settlement Public Road on the evening of November 15, 2015, following the collision of two cars.

The police, in a statement had said that the accident occurred around 9.30 pm, when the driver of a car, bearing licence plate PRR 2661, was proceeding along the roadway and collided with another car that was heading in the opposite direction.

As a result, the driver of PRR 2661 hit two children, including Veerasammy.

His sister, Saskia Razack, had told this newspaper that Veerasammy left home with Somraj Harricharran to visit a nearby shop to purchase a drink. She explained that while the two youths were standing by a utility pole at a corner along the public road, the cars collided and hit them, flinging Veerasammy some 15 feet away. Harricharran was left lying on the roadway. They were both picked up by public-spirited citizens and rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital. Veerasammy was to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital but died on the way. Harricharran was treated for a fractured hand and later discharged.