Police still awaiting DPP’s response on fatal hit-and-run

Jun 30, 2010 News

– three weeks after sending file
Some three weeks after sending a file to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), police are still awaiting advice on the case involving the Good Friday night death of Ramona Harris.
Traffic Chief Neil Semple confirmed yesterday that the DPP’s office is still to return a report on the hit-and-run death.
Mahase Chunilall, the owner of the hit-and run vehicle, was charged with breach of insurance and permitting the use of an uninsured vehicle after admitting that the vehicle was his.
But Chunilall, of Lot 36 South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, claims that he lent the car to an overseas-based relative who returned to the US the following day.
There have been suggestions from some quarters that police should have charged Chunilall with causing death by dangerous driving. Asked to respond to this suggestion Senior Superintendant Semple said that he preferred to leave such a decision to the legal experts.
Ramona Harris, the mother of a one-year-old daughter, was walking along the main road in Diamond Housing Scheme on Good Friday night last, when Chunilall’s car struck her from behind.
The driver fled the scene.
Harris suffered multiple injuries and succumbed at the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital.