CHRISTIANA, Manchester — The policewoman who was critically injured in a two-vehicle crash that claimed the life of her 10-year-old son on Monday is said to be improving in hospital.

Sources said she was informed of her son’s death on Tuesday afternoon when she was surrounded by relatives, including her daughter, who had arrived hours earlier in the country.

“She not out of the woods yet. She is more coherent now and she is communicating better to the point where we told her that her son has passed,” a highly placed source told the Jamaica Observer.

A 31-year-old man, who police said was the driver of the Range Rover involved in the collision that claimed the life of Treavon Saunchez, remains in police custody after being questioned by investigators Tuesday afternoon.

Police sources said the man, who turned himself in late Monday, has been warned for prosecution.

Police refused to name the person believed to have been driving the Range Rover which changed the joy and excitement of children going back to school on Monday to tears and sorrow.

On Tuesday there was a sombre mood both at the boy’s paternal home and his school.

His father, Bevon Saunchez, said his family is devastated as Treavon was remembered as a child who brought joy to everyone around him.

“We spent a lot of time together. He was my little ‘parrie’. He was always here around his grandparents. He loved to be around them. They loved him just as much. Everybody loves him — neighbours, schoolmates. He had a good relationship with everybody,” he said.

“It very hard to see Monday morning when everybody has their child going out and you look forward to hearing all the good stuff and it just never happens. It is traumatising,” he added.

Treavon’s grandmother, Beryl Saunchez, recounted her last conversation with him on Sunday.

“I said, ‘Treavon, you can bring your game [tablet] home and mom will allow you to stay 15 minutes on it, because it is school time.’ He said, ‘No, grandma’… He put down his game. I didn’t know I wasn’t going to see my grandson again,” the grandmother said.

She said she told him of her expectations of him as he entered grade six.

“He said, ‘Yes, Grandma, I want to do well, because I want to go to Knox College where my aunts and my dad went.’ I told him that he just has to continue working hard,” she said, while adding that Treavon had high hopes of becoming a pharmacist or medical doctor.

“I told him that is nice, because we need a doctor in our family,” she said.

His name was number nine on a list of students at the entrance of a grade six classroom at Christiana Leased Primary School. Inside the classroom, his classmates paid tribute to him with notes and sketches.

Kimberley Hewitt, his grade five home economics and language arts teacher, described him as a jovial student.

“It is shocking news for us. He was a vibrant student. He was all fun. Whenever you walked out of the classroom he would be one of the students running back to his seat and sitting and looking as innocent as ever like he didn’t do anything. He will be missed,” she said.

Garcia Rattery-Aransevia, his grade five social studies and research teacher, remembered him as a lively student.

“Treavon was my ‘parrie’. He was the person who, when I got into the class with my clown self, he was the one to lead everybody on. He was one to always challenge something. He always had something to say as a rebuttal. He always questions stuff. He was not afraid to ask. He was very confident,” the teacher said.

“When I went home [on Monday] my stomach got tight, it was just so bad. Even driving to school and passing the scene,” she said before breaking down in tears.

“The students are not taking it well. They are trying to be strong, you know adults would know more than children, but they are trying to be strong. They are doing the best they can to cope with the situation, but it is very difficult. His life was just cut short and nobody saw it coming,” she added while pointing to a video which showed Treavon dressed in his school uniform for what was to be his first day of grade six.

“Then I saw this video where he was modelling his new shoes and I was just anticipating that he would come and put up his foot and show me his shoes; it is just sad to see that he had that video done and I did not get to see any of it,” she said.

The teachers and students were on Tuesday provided with grief counselling.

Marsha Fennell-Bell, education officer from Quality Education Circle (QEC) 46, said guidance counsellors from neighbouring schools are among those conducting grief counselling sessions.

“The region [five] stands resolute to support the institution all the time and now in particular that our student has passed. Our regional director Mrs Suzanne Nelson-Smith was here yesterday with a team of us from the Ministry of Education. Today we are here again with the educational social workers and we will be providing psychosocial sessions,” she said.