An East Coast Demerara businessman was on Friday remanded to prison when he appeared at the Weldaad Magistrates Court on two accident-related charges.
Paul Mahabal, 32, of Montrose, East Coast Demerara, appeared before Magistrate Michelle Matthias, charged with failing to stop after an accident and failing to render assistance to an accident victim.
Remanded: Paul Mahabal
He pleaded not guilty to both charges and was remanded.
Attorney at law Camila DaSantos, who represented the accused, argued that they were minor offences and hence the court should consider bail.
However, Police Prosecutor Sergeant Garfield Edwards told the court that there was another charge in relation to the death of someone. He said that charge wasn’t instituted because the autopsy was done a short while before the court hearing.
Edwards alleged that the accused failed to stop after the accident and subsequently drove past two police stations before being apprehended at a police roadblock.
He added that Mahabal is considered a flight risk and asked the court not to grant bail, promising that at the next hearing of the matters, the police will be instituting a causing death by dangerous driving charge.
The cases were transferred to the Fort Wellington Magistrates Court and come up again on July 16.
Police had said that they were investigating a hit-and-run fatal accident which occurred at about 21:20h on July 8 along the Number 22, Bel Air Public Road, West Coast Berbice.
The accident involved motor car PAF 2130, owned and driven by Paul Mahabal, a 32-year-old resident of Montrose, East Coast Demerara, and pedestrian Kimberley Jones, a 16-year-old girl from Number 22, Bel Air, West Coast Berbice.
According to the police, the car was proceeding west along the southern side of the road when the right side front of the car collided with the pedestrian who was crossing the road from north to south.
As a result of the collision, the 16-year-old girl received injuries to her body.
The car continued to proceed west along the road without stopping.
Meanwhile, the 16-year-old girl was picked up in an unconscious condition by public-spirited citizens and taken to Fort Wellington Public Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Contact was made with Mahaicony Police Station, who stopped the said motor car and arrested the driver.
Meanwhile, an autopsy conducted on the body of Kimberley Jones by Government pathologist Dr Vivakanand Bridgemohan showed that she suffered a fractured neck and fractured skull, with death a result of trauma.
