Mom, tot killed in highway crash

A story extracted from the Trinidad Guardian

LEFT: A police officer views the damaged car in which Shamilla and Vionna Ramjit were killed during an accident along the Solomon Hochoy Highway.
RIGHT: Baby Vionna Ramjit, who lost her life in an vehicular accident on the Solomon Hochoy Highway yesterday. Photos: Rishi Ragoonath

Birthday celebrations for Vionna Ramjit, who would have turned one year today, had to be cancelled yesterday, when both daughter and mother were killed in a vehicular accident. The accident occurred just before midday along the Solomon Hochoy Highway in the vicinity of Gasparillo. Parents Shamilla, 35, Ivan, 40, left their Woodland home and headed to PriceSmart Supermarket, Chaguanas, to collect baby Vionna’s birthday cake.

Tragedy struck as the family was heading to Debe to meet relatives to go to the newly-opened water park in the area. Police said the mother was seated in the front passenger seat of a wagon driven by her husband, with baby Vionna in her arms, when the accident occurred. Police said her husband had just left the supermarket and was proceeding south on the highway when he lost control of his car and slammed into a TTEC pole. The car, police said, began spinning upon impact, pitching baby Vionna onto the embankment, where she died instantly. The mother died hours later at San Fernando General Hospital. Up to late yesterday, dad Ramjit was listed as being in a critical condition.

The couple also has a son Vion, ten. At the scene yesterday, baby Vionna’s birthday cake was seen squashed in the back seat of the car. Shamilla’s elderly dad Premchand was lost for words yesterday. Unable to control his emotions and overcome with grief, he said, “I lost my wife Kamla seven months ago, and now my daughter dead. I cannot take this. I have nothing to say.” Meanwhile, two other accidents occurred in the same area yesterday, one claiming the life of a retired police officer.

According to a police report, Winston Alexis, of Mahogany Street, was standing south along the highway, around 5.30 am, when a car heading in the opposite direction collided with him. Alexis, a father of ten, police said, was pitched in the air and his body dismembered. Hours later, police said Hemeoeath Ramkissoon was driving his car near to Gasparillo on the highway when his front tyre blew out, causing him to lose control and slam into a light pole. Ramkissoon escaped unharmed. Front seat passenger Larry Mahase, however, suffered a broken leg