Geisha Kow­lessar

In­stead of mak­ing plans for a much an­tic­i­pat­ed fam­i­ly re­union, a dev­as­tat­ed La Hor­quet­ta fam­i­ly has been forced to make fu­ner­al arrange­ments for their in­fant child. The child, Kiara Jack­ie, who would have turned two on Au­gust 14, died on the spot af­ter she was flung from a pan­el van. The ac­ci­dent, which caused a ma­jor traf­fic jam, oc­curred around 5.30 am yes­ter­day on the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way near the Mal­oney traf­fic lights.

Po­lice said Kiara and her four-year-old sis­ter Cia­ra were in the van with their moth­er Va­lene. Rel­a­tives said Va­lene and her chil­dren were re­turn­ing home af­ter vis­it­ing a friend at Mal­oney when the van, dri­ven by a friend, was struck from be­hind by a car. The van crossed the me­di­an and col­lid­ed with a truck head­ing east, dri­ven by An­gad Bas­deo, of Ca­roni Sa­van­nah Road, in Char­lieville. The im­pact re­sult­ed in Kiara be­ing flung from the van and thrown sev­er­al feet in the air be­fore land­ing on the road. The child died in­stant­ly.

Va­lene and Cia­ra were tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope.

Va­lene, who was trans­ferred to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, re­mained in crit­i­cal con­di­tion up to late yes­ter­day. She is yet to be told of her daugh­ter's death. Cia­ra, rel­a­tives said, was list­ed in sat­is­fac­to­ry con­di­tion and was ex­pect­ed to be re­leased from hos­pi­tal in a few days. The chil­dren's aunt, Michelle Grant, who ar­rived from the US for the re­union, said she was shocked by the news. "I nev­er saw Kiara be­fore and I came down hop­ing to spend some time with her," she said. "This is all very ter­ri­ble...I just can­not be­lieve it be­cause that was the last thing any­one ex­pect­ed. "We have to plan for a fu­ner­al now. It is all so shock­ing." Kiara's grand­moth­er Clavis May­nard de­scribed her grand­child as her "a lit­tle an­gel." "I can­not be­lieve some­thing like this hap­pen...I get so ac­cus­tom to the chil­dren I don't know how I go­ing to cope," May­nard said.

The man­gled pan­el van lies on its hood on the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way in Mal­oney. Tod­dler Kiara Jack­ie, who was with her moth­er in the van, died in the crash. Pho­to: An­dre Alexan­der