Despite his mother’s efforts to shield his tiny body with her own, three-year-old Ravendra Gattoo was killed instantly when a truck slammed into the vehicle his family was travelling in along the M2 Ring Road, yesterday morning. Five other members of his family were rushed to hospital for treatment, with his mother listed in critical condition. Around 11.15 am yesterday, Ravendra, his mother Samantha Gattoo, his six-year-old sister Stacy, all of Bejucal, Cunupia and his grandparents, Laloutie Balraj and Balraj Maniram of Barrackpore, were travelling in a Mitsubishi four-door van driven by Gattoo’s cousin, identified only as Kumar.
According to relatives at the scene, as soon as Kumar entered the M2 Ring Road in Picton, he saw the truck, with a 40-foot trailer, swerving along the roadway from a few hundred feet away.
Relatives said Kumar thought the truck would not hit the van if he came to a complete stop while the truck was still at least two hundred feet away from them. However, the truck never stopped and hit the right side of the van, forcing it into a ditch on the side of the road.
Ramoutar Balraj, the uncle of the dead child, who spoke to the Guardian at the scene, said his sister and her children were visiting their grandparents in Barrackpore over the weekend and Kumar was taking them back to their Bejucal Road, Cunupia home. “They come to spend holidays and Kumar was dropping them back home,” said Balraj. “I don’t know how my sister will take this, she don’t even know yet.”
Balraj said Samantha, his only sister, was accustomed to spending time with her family in Barrackpore. “Mantha (Samantha), does always bring the children to spend time with my mother and father. Everybody loved them two children, just yesterday I was playing with him and look at him now, just lie down there,” he said, with tears running down his face.
He is calling for justice for his nephew’s death. “The truck driver should be charged, he telling the police ‘Is just ah accident,’ but them truck drivers doh care if people dead or live. He could have swerved to the other side of the road! Look at that child, he life ent even start yet. I hope they lock him up!” The child’s father, Rocky Gattoo, who rushed to the scene when he was given the news, stood in the rain looking on at the body of his three-year-old son, unable to speak. The driver of the truck, who was not identified, remained on the scene speaking to police after the accident. He appeared unhurt.