A police vehicle assigned to the Roche Bois police station was racing against time on the afternoon of Thursday November 23 to take a 9-year-old boy to the Dr. A.G. Jeetoo hospital in Port-Louis. The 9-year-old child, Jean Clarino Edouard, was bleeding profusely from the head after being hit by an Aprilia scooter driven by a 15-year-old teenager on rue Desboucher, Roche Bois.
The unlicensed student abandoned the two-wheeler at the scene of the accident and fled the scene. Shortly afterwards, he was apprehended at his home in this locality. Suspecting he was under the influence of alcohol, the teenager was tested before a blood sample was taken from him.
Clarino Edouard breathed his last in the emergency department while undergoing treatment. The young motorcycle driver spent the night in the juvenile detention center at the Petite Rivière police station. He is being held there until the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions gives its opinion on the police report.
It was around 1:20 pm on the afternoon of Thursday November 23 when a team of police officers from the Roche-Bois police station went to Rue Desbouchers, Roche Bois following a request concerning a road accident. A 9-year-old child, bleeding profusely from the head, was lying on the asphalt. He had been knocked down almost in front of his door by a scooter driven by a 15-year-old from the same locality. As the Emergency Medical Service (SAMU) was slow in arriving, having got stuck in a traffic jam, the injured man was taken in charge by police officers, who loaded him into their vehicle and took him to hospital. The child was accompanied by his father, a 41-year-old maintenance worker. On the way to the hospital on rue Descarrières, Roche Bois, the police vehicle collided with a Yamaha motorcycle. The motorcycle was driven by a 43-year-old woman, with a 15-year-old girl as a passenger. Both live on rue Desbouchers, Roche Bois. In the meantime, a SAMU ambulance had arrived in the area to take all the injured to hospital. The motorcyclist and her daughter were injured.
While little Clarino Edouard was being treated in the emergency department, he sadly passed away at around 2.30 pm on Thursday November 23rd. Only the motorcyclist was admitted to the ward, while her daughter was allowed to return home.
The underage teenager, who was arrested late afternoon on Thursday November 23, was ticketed at around 4.45pm by an Emergency Response Service officer for the offence of driving under the influence of drugs or intoxicating liquor. This was after he had undergone an alcotest and a field impairment test for drugs, which proved positive. He was then taken to hospital for a blood test. The police officer, driver of the vehicle involved in the accident, was subjected to an alcohol test, which proved negative.
An autopsy performed on Clarino Edouard’s body at the Dr Jeetoo Hospital morgue by Dr P.K. Seewooruttun, Police Medical Officer, attributed the boy’s death to a fractured skull.
