Crash families tell of their pain
Daughter killed by police van
LUTCHMIE Haripersad will never forget her daughter’s last words as she headed for university: “I forgot to tell you I love you, Mummy.”
Little did she know that a few hours later she would stand in the rain trying in vain to save her eldest daughter’s life.
Sorchia Haripersad, 20, a second-year radiography student at the Durban University of Technology, died after she was knocked down by a police van that was allegedly speeding in Jabu Ngcobo Drive, near the Space City Garage in Verulam, on Wednesday last week.
She and her friend, Keshnee Padayachee, 18, a first-year radiography student, were returning home when tragedy struck. They had disembarked the bus and were standing on the traffic island in the centre of the road when they were hit.
Padayachee, who is in the ICU in an induced coma, is fighting for her life.
Speaking from her Verulam home on Monday, Haripersad said Wednesday started like any other day.
“Sorchia was going to go to college and then to City Hospital to do her internship. I dropped her at the garage and she said goodbye. A few seconds later she ran back to the car and said, ‘I forgot to tell you I love you, Mummy’ and she gave me a hug and walked away. Little did I know it was the last hug I would get from my child.”
She spoke of the pain of losing her daughter. “I had chatted to Sorchia during the day. She said she was starving and couldn’t wait to get home so I prepared her favourite – chicken and mashed potato.”
Haripersad said she parked at the garage around 6pm waiting for Sorchia to arrive by bus.
“I heard a loud bang and decided to get out of my car to see if anyone had been in an accident and needed help.
“I was the first person on the scene and as I got to the centre of the road I saw my daughter’s jacket. She had been badly broken. Every part of her body was hurt. She was lying on her tummy and all her belongings were scattered all over the road. I couldn’t bear to see my child so hurt,” she said.
“I immediately felt her pulse and tried to keep cars from hurting her further.”
Haripersad said she then ran to look for Keshnee, who had been flung a few metres down an embankment.
She said she was angry at the driver of the van because of how he had allegedly reacted.
“I begged the policeman who knocked my daughter to help me by at least stopping the flow of traffic. He started laughing in my face and told me that it was not his job… He should have helped me.”
A crew from security company Reaction Unit South Africa arrived within minutes and took the injured friends to Umhlanga Hospital, she said.
Her husband Yoraj said he had demanded that a blood test be taken to see if the driver had been drunk.
“My daughter was crossing the road. According to witnesses the police vehicle overtook a string of cars and drove on the centre island where the girls were standing. The damage on the van is (evidence) of the speed he was travelling at.”
The Haripersads said their daughter was declared dead at around 10pm that evening.
“I called the investigating officer to tell him my daughter died and he said it was not for me to tell him that, and he was waiting for a call from Umhlanga Hospital.”
Lu t c h m i e said she wanted justice.
“Justice for me is seeing the policeman going to jail or is suspended from the police. This is the worst thing for any parent to go through and I don’t want any other parent to feel this pain.”
She described her daughter as a happy child. “Her funeral service was evident of this. She worked at a day-care centre and at a Rotary club. Doing goodwill was part of who she is.”
Meanwhile, Padayachee’s parents, Siva and Christina, have not being getting any rest since the accident. “We jump at every phone call,” said Siva.
Their only daughter was to have been picked up by her boyfriend when the tragedy occurred. “Keshnee is in a stable but serious condition. Doctors have given us hope that she will recover.”
Christina said there was “some movement” but her daughter was in an induced coma. “Doctors said she suffered severe head injury, a lacerated lung and broken ribs.”
Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said the driver alleged that when he noticed the pedestrians in the centre of the road he applied his brakes but that, due to the rain, the vehicle continued to slide and collided with them.
Naicker said Verulam police were investigating a case of culpable homicide.