Roger Tappin, the truck driver on trial for causing the death of a 12-year-old boy by dangerous driving, was yesterday found not guilty.
Magistrate Fabayo Azore, who presided over the trial at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, informed the court that the prosecution failed in its obligation to discharge its burden of proving that the elements of the offence had been made out.
The charge against Tappin was that he caused Winston ‘Junior’ Cameron’s death by dangerous driving. Cameron, of Lot 40 West Ruimveldt Squatting Area, died on his way to the Georgetown Public Hospital after he was hit from his bicycle at D’Urban and Camp streets.
Magistrate Azore said that there is no doubt that Tappin’s vehicle hit the child but added that the court did not find that Tappin drove in a “dangerous manner.”
“Driving in a dangerous manner,” she said, is an important element of the offence which the prosecution failed to prove, since there was no evidence that Tappin did in fact drive dangerously.
The court said it found also that the child had suddenly steered his bicycle directly into the path of Tappin’s vehicle, causing the accident.
Magistrate Azore, however, enquired from Tappin whether he had assisted the child’s family financially or otherwise.
His attorney Paul Fung-a-Fat, however, indicated to the court that his client had assisted the child’s family financially with funeral arrangements and had also paid them compensation. He said also that his client’s family had lent moral support to the Cameron’s family by visiting them and was in close and constant contact with them.
Tappin was first arraigned on October 15, last year and was admitted to bail in the sum of $300,000. The matter subsequently went to trial.
Cameron and his older brother were on bicycles heading to their father’s work place at Anira Street, sometime after 4 pm on October 12, last year, when the accident occurred.
The child’s father, Caesar Cameron, had said that he was at his work place expecting his children, and after waiting for a while and they did not arrive he became worried.
The man said he then received a call from a relative who informed him that his son was in an accident and had died. The man said when he arrived at the hospital he saw his son with what appeared to be head injuries and a broken leg.
