Father of 3 sentenced to five years for road accident death

A father of three was yesterday sentenced to almost six years’ hard labour and disqualified from driving for 15 years after he pleaded guilty to causing the death of a mother of two in a hit-and-run on the Beetham Highway in 2010.

Kevin Seecharan, 36, was sentenced by Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas in the Port of Spain Third Criminal Court.

He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving on July 12, 2010, when he hit Pamela Robinson’s car, causing it to spin out of control before flipping and crashing into a concrete slab in the median of the highway.

At about 7.15 am that morning, Robinson left her Trincity home heading to work in her black Toyota Celica, when the back of her car was hit by another driver who had reportedly been driving dangerously, cutting in and out of the three-lane highway.

She was thrown out through the back windscreen of her car and suffered massive head and internal injuries. She died after receiving emergency treatment at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Seecharan, the driver of the car which hit Robinson’s, did not stop and a month later, after speaking to his father, turned himself in to police at the Barataria police station.

Robinson’s husband, Shelford, who was only five minutes behind his wife, driving in his vehicle when the accident occurred, was in court yesterday and spoke of the trauma of losing his wife.

He also declined an offer of $30,000 compensation from Seecharan.

On July 13, when Seecharan pleaded guilty, he was allowed to address the judge.

He apologised to Robinson’s family, and expressed hope they would forgive him.

“I know the pain I put them through. If I could re-write that day I would. Not a day goes by when I don’t ask the Lord for his forgiveness,” he said.

St Clair-Douglas sentenced Seecharan to a total of eight years' hard labour, but applied the one-third discount for his guilty plea and the one month he spent in jail before he was able to access bail, leaving a sentence of five years, nine months for him to serve.

He also disqualified him from driving for 15 years.

Seecharan was represented by attorney Fulton Wilson.