THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Joash Joseph will not be starting the new school term today along with his classmates in Form Two at the Palo Seco Secondary School.

On August 26, the boy was returning from the Military Tattoo in celebration of Trinidad and Tobago's 50th anniversary of Independence when he was knocked down by a car in full view of his mother. He died on August 30.

Joash suffered severe brain trauma after he landed on his head when his body was thrown 60 feet from the point of impact.

His mother, Stacy Beckles-Joseph, said she was standing in the porch watching as her son alighted from the bus after returning from the Military Tattoo with the Siparia Youth Club. The event was held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.

Beckles-Joseph said about 200 children had attended the show with adults.

She said her son was in a bus accompanied by another vehicle from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and both vehicles had stopped to allow her son to disembark at his Syne Village, Penal, home.

"My son came off the bus and was two to three steps away from crossing the road when he was hit," Joseph said.

Had Joash got across safely, his mother was told he planned to relate to her all that he had seen during the show earlier in the day.

She said he would usually accompany him on these outings but was unable to go on that day.

Joash was struck by a silver-grey Nissan Almera which stopped at the scene.

He was rushed to the Siparia Health Facility and transferred to San Fernando General Hospital.

Beckles-Joseph was told her son had a broken leg and pelvic bone.

Although he had no internal injuries, Joash had suffered brain trauma and slipped into a coma.

He was taken to the Mount Hope Medical Sciences Complex, where the family visited him.

After his mother read out loud for him the letters his family members and friends had written to him, Joash died on Thursday afternoon.

"It was if he was waiting to hear from everyone," his father Adrian Joseph said.

Joash, who would have entered Form Two at the Palo Seco Secondary School at the start of this term, was described as an intelligent young man who wanted to become an engineer.

Beckles-Joseph said her son planned to own a company with his brother, Jermaar.

Joash's father yesterday called for motorists to be more cautious.

In hindsight, he said had an adult accompanied his son from the bus, he may have been alive today.

Joash died on the anniversary of his (Adrian Joseph's) mother death and 20 years after his (Adrian's) brother was killed in a car accident.

A post mortem is expected on Joash's body today and the funeral service is expected on Thursday.

Acting Sgt Baptiste is continuing investigations into the incident and is expected to question a man in his twenties about the boy's death.

The teenager's death brings the road fatality toll for 2012 to 121.