Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
The family of a man who died in a car accident with an unmarked police vehicle in Couva in 2018 is set to receive a little over $300,000 in compensation.
High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan ordered the compensation for Rishi Sankar’s relatives as he partially upheld their lawsuit over his death, last week.
Justice Ramcharan noted that they would have received double the compensation in normal circumstances, but he could not determine exactly who was at fault for the fatal accident based on a scarcity of evidence.
“In the absence of any better or clearer evidence, the court is minded to apportion the fault in the matter equally between the drivers,” he said.
According to the evidence in the case, on April 29, 2018, Sankar, 35, was driving his Nissan Wingroad along Orange Valley Main Road in Couva, when he collided with a Nissan X-Trail driven by Inspector Kazim Ali.
His relatives, through their lawyers Chanka Persadsingh and Tesheera Mohammed, of Dipnarine Rampersad and Company, filed the lawsuit against the Office of the Attorney General and Ali seeking compensation.
Sankar’s family did not have any eyewitnesses to the accident to testify, and was allowed to present the evidence of accident reconstruction expert Kerwin Simmons, who visited the site and produced an expert reconstruction report.
In assessing the evidence, Justice Ramcharan noted that Simmons was hamstrung as he performed his duties six years after the accident occurred.
He also noted that Simmons was not required to interview Ali before producing his report, as he (Simmons) had access to his witness statement.
However, he ruled that he could not agree entirely with Simmons’ conclusions, which were partly based on the final locations the vehicles were in after the crash.
“The Court is therefore of the view that at the time of the impact, both vehicles were at the very least partially on the wrong side of the road,” Justice Ramcharan said.
“The only version of events we have is that of Ali, who vacillated from time to time in his evidence and therefore was not the most reliable,” he added.
Justice Ramcharan ordered $25,000 for loss of expectation of life, and $512,000 for loss of lost years of earnings.
He also ordered $66,125 in special damages, which includes the value of Sankar’s vehicle at the time of the accident.
The State and Ali were also ordered to pay the legal costs incurred by Sankar’s family for the case.
