Father mourns daughter's death in highway crash

RICHARD Osbourne, 66, was saddened over the death of his daughter Colleen in an early-morning car accident on Wednesday.

Osbourne was also sad that Colleen never got a chance to clear her name over an incident that happened 19 years ago.

Colleen was one of four people charged with the kidnapping of Saada Singh, then four, from the Giselle Montessori School on Archibald Street, Vistabella on June 3, 2004. Two days later, Singh was found wandering along a lonely road in Siparia.

On Wednesday Colleen, 42, was driving south down the Uriah Butler Highway when her vehicle ran off the road.

A police report said she collided with a median barrier near the Caroni Overpass before flipping several times and landing in a bushy area off the road. Investigations are ongoing.

Speaking with the media at his home at Cedar Drive, Pleasantville, Osbourne said Colleen lived in Debe.

"She was a well-known person. She liked to party."

Osborne said Colleen had driven the same route many times, day and night, without incident. He had no idea where she was coming from when the accident happened, but said she sometimes ran errands at different times of the day.

The last time he spoke with Colleen was on Sunday.

"She was good. She brought something here for me."

He added that he did not believe claims being circulated on social media that she died because she fell asleep at the wheel. He said she always wore her seatbelt and exercised caution when she was driving.

He believed someone may have "given her a bad drive," but did not think anyone would have been in the area to witness what happened.

He felt putting more crash barriers on the highways could reduce the number of accidents there.

He did not know anything about an expired driver's permit of Colleen's being circulated on social media.

Osbourne said she was a self-employed masseuse who sometimes travelled to Venezuela to work.

"But she has not gone (to Venezuela) for a while."

She had four children, 25, 24, 16 and seven. The first two live abroad and the other two lived with her. Osbourne said she had been thinking about taking them on a trip to Canada later in the year.

He was reluctant to speak about the Singh kidnapping, but was sad that she never got closure on it. He said the related court matter has been never concluded.

"It was time to clear that...Nobody wanted to bell the cat and throw it out."

Osbourne said the case was still before the High Court up to last year.

"This last time, she was frustrated."

Meanwhile, Osbourne said, Colleen was doing her best to make a good life for her children and herself.

She, Johnathan and Kimberly Moonsammy and Keston Franklyn were charged with kidnapping Singh. In 2009, they were committed to stand trial in the San Fernando High Court after a preliminary inquiry.

Johnathan Moonsammy was murdered in Vistabella on April 6, 2017.