9 year old dies after being hit by a maxi taxi

Caressing the face of her 9-year-old son, Emmanuel John, Sally-Ann Verasammy wept profusely as she pleaded with him to wake up.

Emmanuel was hit by a maxi taxi while attempting to cross the Priority Bus Route, at Sixth Avenue, Barataria, last week Wednesday.

He had been on life support at the Intensive Care Unit of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex since then.

Around 11am today, Thursday, over a dozen relatives gathered at the hospital where a paediatric consultant gave them the dreadful news: Emmanuel was brain dead and had to be taken off of life support.

Verasammy screamed, clutched her chest and shook her head in disbelief.

“Doctor please. All I want is two more days. Please! I’m begging you. We are a praying family and believe in miracles,” she cried.

The consultant sympathised with the family but explained that the previous day he and a neurosurgeon performed several tests on the child, which showed there was a complete absence of brain activity.

In the presence of Verasammy and her 18-year old daughter, the doctors again performed a series of tests this afternoon, before turning off his life support machine.

The child was pronounced dead at 3.47 p.m.

On Monday, Emmanuel was supposed to enter Standard Three at the Aranguez Government Primary School.

His grandmother, Cherry Ann Francis Lau, explained that Verasammy had just moved into her new apartment on Third Street, Barataria.

She said her daughter did not yet connect her gas tank so went across the Bus Route to a friend’s home to cook.

She carried her three younger children with her, while Emmanuel was left at home with his elder siblings- 18 and 13.

She said the boy insisted on going with his mother, but his sister told him she had to take a shower before carrying him.

Francis-Lau said by the time the sister came out of the bathroom, Emmanuel was gone.

“She (sister) called her mother asking if Emmanuel was with her, and that’s when Sally-Ann ran out the road and was told he was knocked down,” she said.

Versammy said the maxi hit her son on the left side of his head and pitched him a few yards away.

She said she attempted to make a report about the accident the following day at the Barataria Police Station, but was told that she could not do so as she was not present when the accident occurred.

“They said the driver of the maxi taxi made a report and that he was very traumatised, imagine that,” an upset Verasammy said.

Contacted yesterday, Barataria Police confirmed that they interviewed the driver of the maxi but no arrest was made.

They said investigations are continuing.

Calls for justice

Verasammy has called for justice for her son.

She said a passenger of the maxi taxi came forward and informed her that the traffic lights were on red and that her son did the right thing by looking both ways before crossing.

“The woman said the driver was bending down checking his money and by the time he looked up it was too late,” she said.

Another eyewitness, Pastor Nigel Leade, also told the Express that the traffic lights at the junction were on red.

“I saw everything. I was preaching in a yard with my spiritual mother and while preaching I saw a young boy wanting to cross. I was about to go and help him cross. While coming out through the front gate to go to the boy, this maxi came flying through the red light, heading to Port of Spain, and hit the boy,” he said.

Leade said he picked up the injured child and jumped into nearby Police vehicle, which rushed them to hospital.

“The glass of the maxi split, that’s how I know Emmanuel got hit hard. I ripped my shirt off and tied it around his head. He was bleeding a lot in the middle of the bus route,” he recalled.

Verasammy described her son as a very bright child who placed second in test last term.

“He was a role model for his younger brother and sister. I just want the driver of that maxi taxi (name called) to know that you changed our lives. You changed my children’s lives. Nothing will ever be the same. Not even a phone call or a visit in the hospital was made. You hit my son and you took away my child from me. Nothing will ever bring him back,” she lamented.