LABASA – A family is mourning the death of their teenage son who died after falling from the trailer of a tractor driven by his father. Vinit Lal, a Form Five student of Nadogo Secondary School, was hanging onto the back of the tractor when he fell on the ground at Daku, outside Labasa Town, on Saturday.
His father, Jaswant Lal could not stop crying yesterday when The Fiji Times visited the family.
He only wished he had known his son had got on the tractor.
“Oh Vinit. Areh Vinit,” he weeped.
“My son won’t come back home, I am so hurt, my heart is so broken, my son is gone.
“I wish I had known he was on the tractor too while I was driving back home.” Mr Lal said he and Vinit had gone to work on their cane farm after lunch on Saturday. “When we finished, I got on the tractor and made my way home.
“He was still in the farm and I didn’t know that he had jumped onto the back of the tractor and was hanging onto the iron rods at the back. “We came through the farm way to our home because the road was in very bad condition and the mud was too soft.
“As I drove up the hill, I heard some people screaming from the back and I stopped the tractor. “When I looked back, I saw my son lying on the ground and I jumped out of the tractor to pick him up.” Mr Lal said Vinit was unconscious when they took him to Wainikoro Hospital.
“The doctors did all they could but my son died and I can’t believe everything happened so fast,” he said. Relatives who gathered at their home yesterday described Vinit as a joyful boy who mingled well with the community.
Vinit, the youngest of two children, was also described as a good artist. His dad held onto his drawing book while walking around the house.
Police spokesman Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri said it was the duty of parents to supervise their children at all times, whether at home or in the field.
“Know where your children are and what they are doing and that even includes your loved ones,” he said. “People’s lives cannot be replaced so it is important that as parents we do our role and look after our loved ones well.”
