Aspiring surgeon, 17, killed in Fyzabad accident

A Fyzabad woman has called for justice after her 17-year-old daughter was killed while running an errand on Monday afternoon near the family’s home.

Adaffi Hills, 35, of Richardson Trace in Pepper Village, said her daughter Shaquana Hills was walking on the pavement when a car driven by a 22-year-old man hit her.

From what eyewitnesses told her mother, the girl was thrown into the air and landed in some bushes at the side of the Fyzabad Main Road.

"Shaquana was on the way home from the pharmacy (nearby at Maraj Trace). I lost a beautiful child. She was aspiring to be a surgeon. The pain I am feeling right now, I don’t think I would be able to recover," Hills said on Tuesday at her home.

"She was an innocent child, very loving, very helpful, and respectful. She never gave me any trouble, not one day."

Shaquana was the eldest of her three children. The other two are four and eight.

She was a form five student of Siparia East Secondary School.

Reports are at around 5.15 pm on Monday, the driver of a silver Nissan Sylphy lost control of the car and struck her. He is also from Fyzabad and was driving a friend’s car.

The grieving mother said the car appeared to have had mechanical problems when it was previously spotted near her home.

"Two nights ago, the car was wrecked from right there," Hills said, pointing to a nearby street.

She called on drivers not to drive defective vehicles because it could end in death.

Hills recalled the final moments with her daughter on Monday afternoon.

"I asked for a plate of food, and she gave it to me. She washed the wares. She combed her grandmother's hair. Shaquanna said she was going out the road, and I told her to be safe," Hills said.

Adaffi Hills' mother Erica said Shaquana had gone to the pharmacy to buy some diabetic strips for a sickly woman in the area, and a nasal spray for a relative.

"She said she was going by Ms Judy to come back. She was jolly, and we laughed a lot the whole day."

When Hills got news of the accident, she ran to the site and saw her daughter motionless on the ground.

People had already begun gathering and called for an ambulance, but it was taking a long time.

Hills said people put two sheets of plywood on the tray of a resident’s van and put Shaquana on it, wrapped in a bedsheet. They took her to the San Fernando General Hospital with a police escort.

She died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

An eyewitness told Newsday the car was swerving violently, and when he hit the girl, the driver got out and waited until the police arrived.

"He did not run. He owned up, and people were quarrelling with him. Some wanted to fight with him. The mother (Hills) was bawling," the eyewitness said.

Fyzabad police seized the car and interviewed the driver. Police later released him without charge, pending further investigations.