Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Hours af­ter they dropped their three-year-old daugh­ter at a babysit­ter so they could have a night of fun, a young cou­ple died when their ve­hi­cle ran off the SS Erin Road in Debe and crashed in­to an elec­tric­i­ty pole yes­ter­day. Po­lice said Prakesh Sook­bir, 25, and his wife Michelle Ramdeen-Sook­bir, 23, of Chester Street, Debe, died short­ly af­ter 1 am, as they head­ed home af­ter a night of par­ty­ing. Sook­bir was dri­ving a black Toy­ota pick-up north along the road when, up­on reach­ing Ra­mai Trace, he at­tempt­ed to over­take an on­com­ing car. He lost con­trol of the van which slammed in­to the pole, be­fore hit­ting a con­crete wall.

Michelle was pitched through the wind­screen, while Sook­bir was trapped in­side the van. With­in min­utes, they were both dead, po­lice said. At the fam­i­ly's home yes­ter­day, Sook­bir's moth­er Za­li­na was still in a state of shock. Sit­ting on a chair with her eyes down­cast, Za­li­na said she still could not be­lieve that her son and daugh­ter-in-law were dead. She said they left the house around 1 pm on Tues­day, to at­tend a biki­ni and car wash fete in Debe. Around 5 pm, Za­li­na said, they dropped off their ba­by Shiv­ani by Di­ane Ali, Sook­bir's sis­ter, who agreed to babysit. They then went to Dip's Bar to lime. Za­li­na said Sook­bir did not drink al­co­hol reg­u­lar­ly and worked as a join­er at home, build­ing fur­ni­ture. "He was a nice per­son, al­ways cheer­ful...He was re­al­ly friend­ly with every­one," Za­li­na wept.

She said Michelle was a full-time moth­er who was com­mit­ted to car­ing for her child. The cou­ple was look­ing for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing Shiv­ani's birth­day in No­vem­ber. When they got news of the ac­ci­dent, Za­li­na said she opt­ed not to go to the scene. "I could not see my child ly­ing there...I stayed at home with the ba­by," she said. "I did not re­alise that they were dead un­til the po­lice told us." Po­lice said au­top­sies were ex­pect­ed to be done on the bod­ies yes­ter­day. The wrecked ve­hi­cle was re­moved to the Debe Po­lice Sta­tion. Cpl Kir­ton Ro­driquez and PC Sel­wyn Grif­fith are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.