Truck driver Dave Harkishun was yesterday cleared of causing the death of 71-year-old Stanley Roach by dangerous driving.
City Magistrate Fabayo Azore handed down the not guilty verdict at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, while informing that the prosecution failed to substantiate that Harkishun drove his vehicle dangerously to cause Roach’s death.
The charge against Harkishun, 23, of Lot 1A Pump Road, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, was that on October 19, along the southern carriageway of the Rupert Craig Highway, he caused Roach’s death by driving his truck GRR 5801 in a dangerous manner.
The police’s case against Harkishun was that he parked the truck on the southern shoulders of the road, facing west within the vicinity of the Mekdeci office.
Prosecutor Ramsahoye Rambujue had said that Harkishun then went into the Mekdeci office to transact business and when he returned he boarded the vehicle and started the engine. Rambujue said that he immediately began reversing for about 10 to 15 feet and the vehicle hit Roach, who fell. The left rear wheel of the truck subsequently ran over him. He was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The magistrate said that substantiating that Harkishun drove “dangerously” was the important element which the prosecution was unable to prove in the evidence presented during trial.
In the circumstances, she informed a visibly relieved Harkishun and his attorney Sase Gunraj that he was found not guilty of the charge.
She explained that because he was found not guilty did not mean that he did not “cause” the death of the man when his truck rolled over him but she re-emphasised that the court was not satisfied that his driving was dangerous.
Briefly recapping the evidence, the magistrate considered that at the time of the accident, the engine of the defendant’s truck was on for some time before coming into contact with Roach.
The magistrate also pointed out that when persons sit in her sealed courtroom, which faces Avenue of the Republic, the idling sound of engines, especially those of trucks, at the traffic light, can clearly be heard.
The court deduced that the sound of the engine of the truck that Harkishun was driving was likely to catch someone’s attention and surmised that one could move from the truck’s path.
At the conclusion of her address, Magistrate Azore, however, told Harkishun to use the road with care and safety.
