Finally we get closure: Crash victims’ family justice
|Published
After a year-and-a-half of seeking closure in the accident that claimed the lives of three family members, including a toddler, a Mitchells Plain family says they can finally find peace in knowing that the man responsible for their deaths is behind bars.
Achmat Suleiman, 35, was sentenced to three years in jail at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court after pleading guilty to a charge of reckless and negligent driving on Monday.
Suleiman was behind the wheel of his Isuzu bakkie on October 23, 2021 when it slammed into a Peugeot 206 that was stuck without petrol along Baden Powell Drive.
Kurt-Lee Carolus, 30, his mother-in-law Yolande Gedult, 50, and his daughter Taralee, four, died.
His widow Lauren, their younger daughter Taliyah and her brother survived the horror crash.
On Thursday, Lauren opened up to the Daily Voice about life after the tragedy while her one-year-old daughter Taliyah could be heard crying in the background.
“I am not going to say that time heals the pain because healing is a process on its own,” the mom said.
“I am not very impressed with the sentence, but I am grateful.
“I am grateful because now I can start grasping onto the good memories and not be reminded about that day when attending court.”
Lauren said while she forgave Suleiman long before the sentencing, her heart still yearns for her family.
“At the end of the day, he needed to pay.
“The only difference is his family will again get to see him when his time is served, while my family is never coming back.”
She said if it wasn’t for her father Desmond Finnis, she believes the case would have died a quiet death.
Finnis, 52, a forensic investigator, reported the officer who was first on the scene to Ipid for gross negligence after he had failed to take statements or photos of the crime scene, draw blood samples from the driver, or even book the cars in.
Finnis said: “I also believe if we didn’t follow up the way we did, the guy would’ve walked.
“I learnt that the cop did not follow procedure and I started my own investigation.
“Eventually he got kicked off the case and we could pursue charges against the accused,” he added.
“We were looking for 15 years imprisonment but he ended up pleading and got three years.”
Finnis said at first he was disappointed with the sentence but has since accepted it, and “at least the case didn’t go unsolved”.