Driver on trial for three road deaths

ON TRIAL: Ashton Kawal leaves San Fernando High Court on Wednesday.
ON TRIAL: Ashton Kawal leaves San Fernando High Court on Wednesday.

A driver has gone on trial on three counts of causing death by driving in which three people lost their lives in an accident in December 2002.

Ashton Kawal, 40, is before a jury of nine members and Justice Carla Brown-Antoine in the San Fernando High Court over the accident 16 years ago at the traffic lights of the St Joseph Village intersection on the San Fernando Bypass.

Three people in Kawal’s Nissan B-12 were killed: Fiona Sammydass, 21, of Ste Madeleine; Lisa Mohammed, 25, of Diamond Village; and Samuel Mohammed, 25, of Vistabella.

On Wednesday, Javed Hosein of Gasparillo, who was the driver of a Nissan Laurel, which collided with Kawal’s, testified that it was at about 3 am on the morning of December 15 and he was returning from his girlfriend’s home, driving in the northbound lane of the bypass at 60 miles per hour.

Hosein said he saw Kawal’s car almost in the middle of the road on the southbound lane. He said he had the green light at the St Joseph Village traffic lights in the northbound lane and when he did so, he collided with Kawal’s car.

But Hosein, in his evidence, led by state attorney Stacy Lallo-Chong, said when he approached the traffic light, it was green and he went ahead.

As he did so, he saw Kawal’s Nissan B-12 approaching the intersection in the southbound lane and suddenly make a right turn into St Joseph Village.

Hosein said his vehicle collided with Kawal’s.

Sammydass, Mohammed and Samuel were seriously injured and were taken to the San Fernando General Hospital, where they died.

Senior State Attorney Shabana Shah is instructing Lallo-Chong and attorney Ramesh Deena is representing Kawal.

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