Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

A Pa­lo Seco moth­er and her on­ly son died yes­ter­day af­ter the car in which they were trav­el­ling up­root­ed part of a bridge on the Pa­lo Seco stretch. Shar­da Har­ri­dass, 32, of Ram­dass Trace, San­ta Flo­ra, and ten-year-old Nick­olous Collins-Dean died with­in hours of each oth­er fol­low­ing the crash which oc­curred around 1.45 am, close to the Pa­lo Seco Cred­it Union gym. Both were in the com­pa­ny of Har­ri­dass' boyfriend, Rudy Per­reira, 53, of Ran­cho Que­ma­do, Erin, when the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

Up to late yes­ter­day, Per­reira re­mained ward­ed in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. Po­lice said Per­reira was dri­ving a rent­ed white Toy­ota Field­er when he lost con­trol. The car hit a cul­vert and slammed in­to a steel bridge. Har­ri­dass was re­port­ed­ly sit­ting in the front seat, while her son was sleep­ing in the back. Po­lice said up­on im­pact, Har­ri­dass and Collins-Dean were thrown out of the car. Collins-Dean suf­fered two punc­tured lungs, and mas­sive head in­juries. He died around 5 am at hos­pi­tal, while his moth­er died at the scene of the ac­ci­dent.

Po­lice re­moved the wrecked car to the San­ta Flo­ra Po­lice Sta­tion. They found fish wrapped in news­pa­per in the back of the car. There were al­so san­i­tary cups. Yes­ter­day, Har­ri­dass' moth­er, Ra­j­daye Gob­erd­han, said she did not know from where the trio were com­ing. "They nev­er told me where they were go­ing. My grand­son was watch­ing TV and his moth­er took him out around 5.30 (pm). She nor­mal­ly goes out with him, but I did not know where she was tak­ing him," Gob­erd­han said.

She said ear­ly yes­ter­day, when she woke up, she saw Har­ri­dass' down­stairs apart­ment locked. "I got wor­ried but I didn't know my on­ly grand­son and my on­ly daugh­ter were dead," Gob­erd­han said. She said po­lice lat­er came to the house with the bad news. Grand­fa­ther Ken­rick Gob­erd­han said Collins-Dean grew up with them as a ba­by. He said the young boy at­tend­ed the Erin Road Pres­by­ter­ian School and want­ed to be­come an en­gi­neer when he grew up. Au­top­sies are ex­pect­ed to be done on both bod­ies to­day. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.