NEWSDAY

By DARCEL CHOY Wednesday, October 22 2014

YOUNG drivers were yesterday urged to always remember that drinking alcohol and driving did not mix as there could be dire consequences.

The advice was given by 25-year-old Kees Alexander as he addressed a roomful of mourners at the funeral of Kema Kafele Walker and his common law wife, Tynelle David, at Allen’s and Sons Funeral Home, Broadway, Arima.

Alexander was the driver of the vehicle that Walker and David were in when it was struck by another vehicle along the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway on October 12. Also injured in the accident were the couple’s two-year-old son Kalani, who suffered minor cuts and bruises and their daughter Tenique Cardinez, who suffered a head injury.

The driver of the vehicle has since been charged with driving under the influence and was fined. The investigation into the crash is continuing. Alexander noted that the driver was only 22 years old.

“I want to urge you young drivers, the drinking and the road thing don’t mix. If I am 25 years and I could deny a sip of alcohol and go on the road. You were driving a Caravan. You told me you were going to pick up people to head back ‘Chinatown’. You could have killed everybody. I just want to urge the young drivers out there, be careful, pay more attention, abide by the law, no drinking and driving,” he said.

Alexander’s mother, Jennifer Cox, prayed that God will take control in the young man’s life.

“Father God, give him the strength to turn around his life and to let him know and all the young people know that speed and gas don’t mix. Alcohol and gas don’t mix, it only creates problems and people losing their life,” she said.

At the funeral were the couple’s children, with their very visible wounds. Cardinez wore a bandage over her head, after she had successfully undergone surgery to the injury sustained in the accident while her brother Kalini had bruises on his face. David’s mother, Tynelle, in her eulogy said her daughter was one any mother would feel proud to call her own. She said she accepted her daughter’s death as it was something in the making before she was born.

“It’s not about she died so soon, or she shouldn’t have died. If it didn’t happen there it would have happened somewhere else. I accept it and because of my knowledge I understand. I will miss her,” she said.

Walker’s mother, Wilma, told mourners that her son’s name, Kema, was a combination of her name and his father’s Kelvin. His middle name, she said, meant king, strong. She thanked and praised God that they all got to enjoy him when he was alive.