Camille Clarke

The probe in­to the deaths of Haydee Paul and her daugh­ters–Ruthie, eight, and Shaki­ra, sev­en–will be com­plet­ed by next week.In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mervyn Richard­son said: "With­in the next week the file will be com­plet­ed and sub­mit­ted for the nec­es­sary ad­vice and di­rec­tion as to how we should pro­ceed in this mat­ter. The in­ves­ti­ga­tion is now at an ad­vanced stage."

He re­fused to com­ment on the ma­chine that took the blood sam­ple or why it took so long to ad­min­is­ter the breathal­yser on the po­lice of­fi­cer in­volved in the ac­ci­dent.Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams said he had no in­for­ma­tion on the ma­chine and would look in­to it."The in­ves­ti­ga­tion would be com­plet­ed in the short­est time­frame. There are oth­er in­sti­tu­tions to give key ev­i­dence but I can't say about the ma­chine. Be­cause there was an ac­ci­dent it does not mean of­fi­cers have to ad­min­is­ter a breathal­yser test," he added.

Williams said Richard­son had been mon­i­tor­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and had been in con­tact with the Sea Lots res­i­dents and the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions."The in­ves­ti­ga­tion needs to be com­plet­ed in a time­ly man­ner but it re­quires that key things be fac­tored in so we have to wait in or­der to make clear de­ter­mi­na­tions on ev­i­dence we gath­er," he added.Those in­jured in the ac­ci­dent were Aman­da Lal­la, 26, Abi­gail Ass­ing and Ryan Ram­per­sad, al­so of Pi­o­neer Dri­ve. Ass­ing has since been re­leased from hos­pi­tal.

Ram­per­sad's moth­er, Pearl, said her son had not re­gained con­scious­ness and was back on a ven­ti­la­tor."He was hav­ing prob­lems and could not breathe for him­self but he re­mains on the ward. I have no idea why he is there. He sus­tained se­vere trau­ma to the head," she said.On the T&T Guardian re­port on the in­ves­ti­ga­tions, she said: "I am not sur­prised by any­thing. It is a po­lice of­fi­cer and we were ex­pect­ing all that is hap­pen­ing. God has the last say."

Spokesman for the Sea Lots res­i­dents Ken­roy Dop­well said the res­i­dents would con­tin­ue their protests un­til they re­ceived jus­tice."The dri­ver who had knocked down a child in Cen­tral on Sat­ur­day evening was charged, yet the probe in­to the Sea Lots ac­ci­dent was not com­plet­ed. This is the way how they treat our com­mu­ni­ty."

MP for Laven­tille West Nile­ung Hy­po­lite said the in­ci­dent should be left in the hands of the in­ves­ti­ga­tor."You hear a num­ber of spec­u­la­tions and the best per­son to re­spond neg­a­tive­ly or pos­i­tive­ly will be the in­ves­ti­ga­tor. An in­ci­dent took place and there is proof a ve­hi­cle was dri­ven by some­one and an ac­ci­dent oc­curred," he added.Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Em­manuel George said work on a walkover was still un­der­way."The mat­ter is un­der ac­tive con­sid­er­a­tion and we have to con­sid­er our op­tions," he said.