By Vashtee Achibar Sunday, August 19 2012

click on pic to zoom in

Shiva Ramesar...dead....

A 23-year-old man who was on his way home to his grandmother’s house where he lived in Pleasantville, San Fernando in the early hours of Saturday morning crashed into the Cipero River located opposite his mother’s house and drowned. The victim has been identified as Shiva Ramesar also called “Fizz”.

His mother, Ann Rooplal, who lives on Rooplal Avenue Victoria Village, San Fernando, just opposite the Cipero River Bridge, said relatives and neighbours heard a crashing sound at about 3 am but thought nothing of it. It was only at about 7 am on Saturday that a truck driver who was passing by noticed an overtured car in the river and alerted residents.

Ann said out of curiosity she decided to go and take a look. She said shortly before that she jumped out of her sleep because she heard her son calling her, “Ma, Ma.” Shiva was her first child and only son. She also has a daughter, six-year-old Bridget.

As she got to the river, Ann said she noticed the bumper of the car above the water and thought it looked like her son’s March motor car, although the body of the vehicle was still under water. But something kept telling her that it was Shiva. The worried mother decided to call her older sister Sarita, who lives in Freeport to tell her that a car looking like Shiva’s was in the river, and so the news started to spread among the family.

The Ste Madeleine police were alerted and a contractor used one of his trucks to pull out the motor car from the water. It was to be a mother’s worst nightmare, as the body inside the motor car was indeed that of her son, Shiva. He was still strapped to his seat belt.

Ste Madeleine police say Shiva was liming with friends and at about 2 am one of his friends decided to bring him home, but he decided to take back his car and go out again. That decision would prove to be deadly.

Ann explains that her son grew up with her parents, Indra and Ralph Gopaul in Pleasantville, as she was separated from his father. She is now remarried, but said they were very close and she would call him at all times to find out where he was. She said the last time she spoke with him was on Wednesday night adding she called his phone several times on Friday night but got no response. As she gazed at a photograph of Shiva, with tears welling up in her eyes, Ann whispered, “I don’t know how this happen, he would pass that road everyday. I didn’t even see a brake impression, I don’t know what happen,” she cried. “He was a good son, he was never rude to me. He was always a happy child, he liked music, and he loved his car”, she said sobbing softly.