Jermaine Carroll was yesterday jailed for 54 months after he was found guilty of causing the death of a seven-year-old child by dangerous driving.
In handing down sentence, Magistrate Judy Latchman sought to send a clear message to other drivers as she detailed the statistics of deaths caused by dangerous driving.
The charge against Carroll, of Stevedore Housing Scheme, stated that on June 17, on Middle Road, La Penitence, he drove motor vehicle PPP 5931, in a manner dangerous to the public, thereby causing the death of Clement Joseph Quallis.
The police’s case is that Carroll was proceeding west along the street at a fast rate when he collided with the child.
The court heard that at the time of the accident the boy was standing on the southern side on a bridge. He was struck and his head was pinned into the bars of a steel fence, while his body was between the bonnet of the car and a concrete fence. Quallis was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Carroll’s attorney Adrian Thompson in his closing arguments stated that the prosecution’s case could not prove that his client drove the said motor vehicle in a manner which was dangerous to the public.
Thompson claimed that while it was unfortunate that a child died as a result of the accident, the investigation done by the police was not thorough. He added that “accident’’ is not a bad word, since accidents often happen, “that’s what you call an accident.” He said that his client could not have been speeding, owing to the potholes on the road, which would normally prevent speeding.
Thompson added that his client cooperated with the police in their investigation and that the accident happened as a result of the defendant using a method to evade a collision with a car which was in his path.
In conclusion, he pleaded for leniency, as he noted that compensation was being worked out for Quallis’s family by the defendant, which they had agreed to accept.
He also mentioned that the defendant had a three-year-old child and no previous convictions, before adding that the prosecution failed to prove his client guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
However, Prosecutor Sergeant Vishnu Hunt contested Thompson’s submissions. He debunked the attorney’s statement that the prosecution could not prove the defendant guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
Hunt said there was no doubt that the defendant was the driver of the said vehicle at the time which collided with the now deceased Quallis.
In substantiating his statements, Hunt alluded to the results from the post-mortem examination and the fact that Quallis was not involved in any further accident while being transported from the scene of the accident to the hospital.
Hunt also referred to the evidence given by Andre Quallis, the father of child amongst other witnesses during the trial and the investigations done by the police.
Hunt refuted the argument brought by counsel that there was another car in the path of the defendant from which he swerved to avoid a collision.
He added that the defendant failed to exercise the 5 Cs and also failed to take into account the condition of the road which had potholes at the time, while music was turned up loudly in the speeding car.
Magistrate Latchman subsequently found him guilty and handed down a sentence of 54 months imprisonment.
The 24 year-old man was last week fined $50,000 after pleading guilty to driving the same car while it was uninsured.
Meanwhile it was said that the post-mortem report revealed that the schoolboy suffered severe injuries to his head, neck and spine.
