The fam­i­ly of a woman who was killed when a ve­hi­cle smashed in­to a bus shed in Cal­i­for­nia, Cou­va, wants the dri­ver to face crim­i­nal charges.

A rel­a­tive al­so called for the woman’s sev­en chil­dren to be com­pen­sat­ed.

Pre­ma­tee Lal­too, 45, al­so known as Michelle, a moth­er of sev­en, was killed on Thurs­day af­ter a black Suzu­ki Vi­tara head­ing west, crossed the east­ern lane and crashed in­to a bus shed. An­oth­er woman, Adana Bain, was se­ri­ous­ly in­jured.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view at his Cal­i­for­nia home yes­ter­day, Lal­too’s broth­er, Ram­nar­ine Joseph, said his sis­ter went to a job in­ter­view and stopped off to check on her boyfriend, who was sell­ing or­anges with his moth­er (Adana Bain) near the bus shed along the South­ern Main Road.

Ram­nar­ine said his sis­ter had ar­rived about five to sev­en min­utes be­fore the ac­ci­dent.

“He (boyfriend) said he dived on the road be­cause the ve­hi­cle was com­ing, a big truck was com­ing. I al­so saw his moth­er on the ground. Her two feet were bro­ken, bones were on the out­side (of the skin). My sis­ter was on the ground not breath­ing. The para­medics came and tried their best, but noth­ing at all,” he said.

Based on how far his sis­ter was thrown af­ter the ve­hi­cle slammed in­to her and the in­juries sus­tained, Joseph al­leged there was no way the ac­ci­dent could have hap­pened if the dri­ver had not been speed­ing.

The griev­ing broth­er said his sis­ter’s death was a fresh trau­ma for the fam­i­ly. He said 24 years ago, his fa­ther was killed in a hit-and-run ac­ci­dent, but they got no jus­tice. He is hop­ing the fam­i­ly gets jus­tice this time around.

Lal­too’s old­er broth­er, Amitabh Ra­jaram, de­scribed his sis­ter as a lov­ing per­son who was snatched away from her chil­dren and fam­i­ly. He said the dri­ver should face crim­i­nal charges.

Joseph added that Lal­too’s sev­en chil­dren, ages rang­ing from 11 to 22, should get com­pen­sa­tion.

“I hope her chil­dren could get some­thing out of this. I know it can­not buy back a life, but at least some­thing to make them com­fort­able. I know they will not be hap­py be­cause they lost their mom, but can­not leave them in pover­ty,” he said.

Sad­dened that his sis­ter died in such a grue­some man­ner, he said, “It was very sad that she went this way but God knows best. At least she was not left suf­fer­ing be­cause that ac­ci­dent might have left her paral­ysed or worse.”

Lal­too had nine sib­lings.

Cou­va po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.