Six-year-old boy crushed by fallen car

A six-year-old boy was killed almost instantly when his head was crushed by his father’s car. Suraj Ajai Beharry was with his father under the car PHH7487 at the family’s residence at Sixth Street, Islington, East Bank Berbice around Tuesday morning, when it fell, pinning him to the ground.

The child was a pupil of the Overwinning Primary School. When this publication arrived on the scene, a crowd was gathering along the narrow street adjacent to the sea wall on the eastern bank of the Berbice River.
Investigators were inside, going through the usual paces, while the body of the lad laid covered on the ground under the house near the car which was partially propped up. Those crowding the street were horrified at the news and the horrific sight.
The undertakers then arrived and took the body away, leaving a very mournful atmosphere with even a few on the street shedding tears. The child’s father, Maheshwar “Suraj” Sookram, 30, was taken away by detectives along with the car jack that was reportedly used to elevate the car.
Inside the lower flat of the house, the grieving mother Selena Petamber, 22, sat in a hammock while relatives and friends tried to comfort her. Petamber explained that the car, a Nissan Sentra, was propped up with the two front wheels missing and Sookram was trying to knock a part from underneath the engine area which needed to be replaced.
The woman related that a mechanic came to the house on Monday and advised Sookram on how to fix the issue under the car, so he proceeded to act on the advice. This publication could not tell how the car was propped up, but saw several pieces of wood nearby that may have been used to support the car on the concrete floor.
Petamber recalled that Sookram, who drives for Triple “S” Taxi Service operating out of New Amsterdam, was trying to knock the damaged part out from under the car and the children were looking on. The deceased was playing with his baby sister, Arianna.
Petamber said she left the yard to discard the waste parts from the fish she was preparing for lunch, over the sea wall one house lot away and when she returned, saw her son with his head under the front of the car doing something. “By the time I put down the bowl from the bench and say come out from deh, …. me na get fo tell am… me na know wat trip but me see the car go down… just me as turn fo go tell he fo come out from deh a see the car slide… the father hussle fo lift,” she explained.
According to the mother, she did not hear any sound from him as his body remained motionless underneath the radiator area.
The lifeless body was eventually pulled from under the car. The fresh scent of blood and the spilled blood told the rest of the story.
The deceased, who placed 12th in his class at the recent end-of-term examinations with 65 per cent, was gearing up for Grade Two come September. Petamber said that the dead boy was one of three children she bore.
He and Alicia, soon to be five, were from a previous union, while one-year-old Arianna was born after she and Sookram began their relationship three years ago.
Meanwhile, speaking via phone from the Central Police Station, Sookram said he was expecting the mechanic to return on Tuesday to replace a bad CV bearing in the front right wheel, so he removed the two wheels. He could not further speak as the police needed him, so he terminated the call.
However, this publication understands that the lad pushed himself under the car to set an empty butter dish to catch some dripping oil. There was a butter dish on the ground near the front of the car where the boy’s head was pinned. Neighbours were shattered by the incident and questioned why the child was under the car was in the first place. The child was described as a well-mannered lad that shared a healthy relationship with many in the community.