A mother of eight-whom police say was drunk-was knocked down and killed in San Fernando on Friday night. However, relatives of Shanti Matadeen, 49, yesterday disputed that she was intoxicated. They insisted she was fully alert. The accident took place around 10.20 pm along the San Fernando By Pass near Pleasantville. Matadeen, a labourer at the San Fernando City Corporation, died instantly. A police report stated that she had crossed the south-bound lane and was standing on the median. When the traffic light turned green, she attempted to cross the north-bound lane. She was struck by a car and her body was thrown on the south-bound lane.
Yesterday, her daughter Desiree of Blitz Village, Pleasantville, admitted that her mother was drinking puncheon rum shortly before she was killed. Desiree said: "When I came home around 8 pm my mother was here. She was drinking puncheon but she was not drunk. My mother, no matter how much she drinks cross the bypass. The driver say my mother walk into the car but it don't make any sense." She said Matadeen, who lived with a male companion in San Fernando, kissed her two grandchildren Jeneim, four, and Hailey, three, before she left. Matadeen's children range in ages 29 to 16 and she has seven grandchildren. An autopsy is expected to be performed tomorrow at the San Fernando mortuary. Mon Repos police are investigating.
