SHELDON Moses, one of the eyewitnesses of the Happy Acres four-vehicle smash-up that claimed the lives of seven persons on December 3, 1999, yesterday changed his testimony from, “I saw when the accident occurred” to “I did not see anything. I heard a bang and when I looked, I observed that there was an accident”.
Moses changed his testimony yesterday after being recalled by Justice Winston Moore for further cross-examination. Defence counsel Mr Mortimer Coddett conducted the cross-examination. Moses had been a passenger in one of the minibuses involved in the accident.
In his evidence-in-chief, Moses had given an eyewitness account of the mishap. But when confronted with another version, which he had given in his deposition, he changed his testimony. He told the Court that it was after hearing the bang from the impact, that he looked in the direction of the sound and saw that there was a collision between the minibus ‘Red Rat’ and a motorcar.
As a result of the accident, Michael Assanah, the driver of the minibus ‘Red Rat’, who was allegedly speeding and overtaking other vehicles that day, was arrested and charged with causing the deaths of Sewsankar Sewdat, Pamela Yaw, Sharon Lall, Sharon Simmons, Cheryl Primo, Leslyn Boucher and Leyland Prince.
On the resumption today, the prosecutor Ms Simone Morris is expected to recall two other witnesses, Nalema Khan and Sean Barnwell to give further evidence. (George Barclay).