The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

AN 11-YEAR-OLD is battling depression after losing several teeth when a car struck him in May, and the driver responsible has not helped with the $15,000 dental repairs he needs.

Jamal McDonald struck Zion Rolle with a Nissan Note on May 15 as the boy crossed Carmichael Road.

He was charged with driving without due care and attention and driving without being covered against third-party insurance risk. Fines related to those offences are $250 and $400, according to the law.

Mr McDonald paid a fine on June 28, according to the head of the road traffic division, Chief Superintendent Eugene Strachan.

Trevina Smith, 30, the boy’s mother, said her situation exposed a gap in the law and questioned how she would get the money to help her son.

“It’s not fair,” she said, “because if he just had to pay a fine, what happen to my baby’s medical fee? What now happens with my child’s mouth?

“I just want his mouth to be fixed because that’s my baby constant cry every day, about his mouth, about his features.

“They said my baby went up into the air and came down and landed directly on his face, and all they saw was just blood. He hit him so hard that the schoolbag that he had on, all the blood drained through it straight into his school books.

“He lost the majority of his front teeth. His permanent teeth were knocked out of his mouth.

“When he looks at himself, he doesn’t feel the same because he doesn’t have any front teeth in his mouth anymore. I now have to get him a special mouthwash.

“He cannot eat the stuff he used to like to eat no more. He has to take painkillers because some nights it is so painful he cannot sleep. When he cries, he is like, why this had to happen to me?” Ms Smith said her son is not going outside and interacting with other children during his summer break because he feels ashamed.

“He doesn’t ride his bike any more. He doesn’t go to the park any more. He doesn’t do nothing but stay in this house,” she said.

Ms Smith made a plea to lawyers for help.

“I am a mother,” she said. “Although I only have one child, I have bills. This is an unnecessary bill for me right now.”

“Dental bills for my baby? That is breaking my backbone. That really is killing me because this is something that I have to do because I cannot look at my child every day the way he is and the pain he is in and cannot be able to help him, so every dollar I get now I have to put towards his dental fee which I feel is not fair.”

Ms Smith said people hoping to help her can reach her at (242) 817-9632.