The death of someone close is always a painful experience, but the death of a child  brings even more excruciating pain and suffering to parents, siblings and close relatives. And the agony is magnified further when that death was a preventable one and occurred because of the recklessness and irresponsible action of someone.
In yet another gruesome death on our roads, a nine-year-old child has perished at the hands of another reckless and irresponsible motorist. And her brother is in a critical condition. We would all hope that he does not succumb.
This is what this newspaper reported yesterday: “Fourth Grader  Jasmattie  Ramnauth, 9, of  7 Ketting Reserve,  D’Edward Village, died instantly, while her younger brother, Vayjai, a Grade Two student, was taken to the Fort Wellington Cottage Hospital, before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, having suffered severe injuries to his head and feet.
An eyewitness said the siblings were walking on the right hand side of the road, when the motor vehicle, PMM 8812, coming from the opposite direction, ran into them. Vayjai was flung several feet in the air, while Jasmattie was pinned under the front wheels of the car.”
What a horrific tragedy indeed!
What is disturbing also is the fact that the motorist fled the scene. However, he is a known character and the police and members of the community should spare no effort to apprehend this most inhumane individual and bring him to justice.
The situation has clearly become overwhelming for our police and therefore, as responsible and patriotic citizens, we have to partner with the law enforcement agencies to rid our society of such reckless persons.
This tragedy begs the question: Do we not have respect and care for the lives of others, particularly our children, anymore? Mankind today, supposedly, is more civilised than his predecessors, but when one considers such a horrific accident, it becomes debatable whether we are actually more civilised than our predecessors.
Ever since this year began we have had many horrific accidents on our roadways and we may already have passed the number for last year’s road fatalities for the comparable period.
Undoubtedly, our country in the last decade has made tremendous economic and material progress. We have economic growth, better hospitals, schools, better infrastructure, increased agricultural production, etc, but as to whether we have improved our attitudes and behaviour is questionable.
If we, as citizens, cannot display the correct attitude and behaviour which encompass respect for lives and  a deep sense of responsibility to our families, society and country, then all the economic and material progress we are making may become meaningless.
No matter how much economic and material progress we make, we will never be able to move to greatness as a nation if the attitude of this motorist becomes the norm.

And from all appearances, it seems we are heading in this direction, which is most unfortunate.

This incident reminds one of the accident at De Kinderen on the West Coast Demerara, where a 13-year old girl on Phagwah Day was distributing sweet meats to neighbours and a drunken bus driver ran off the road and struck her way down on the parapet and killed her. To date that driver has not been brought to justice.
We cannot and must not allow this driver to escape the forces of justice, because if we do, then we are giving the reckless, heartless and inhumane among us  free reign.