A motor vehicular accident involving a minibus and a truck last evening has left several persons nursing minor injuries and happy to be alive.
According to reports, a route 44 Victoria-bound minibus proceeding east along the East Coast public road was hit from the back by a speeding truck which was travelling in the same direction. The accident is said to have occurred some minutes after five at Bachelor’s Adventure, East Coast Demerara (ECD) when the minibus slowed down to pick up a passenger.
An eyewitness told Stabroek News that the truck was speeding and the force with which it hit the minibus caused the bus to topple several times. “If yuh see how dis truck de going with full speed,” the eyewitness said. “It couldn’t a brakes up in time, suh it end up hitting de bus and everybody topple with it.”
Paulette Woolford, 44, of Golden Grove, a passenger of the minibus who was moaning in severe pain after sustaining injuries to her left shoulder told Stabroek News that she was seated in the third seat of the bus and all she remembers is the bus being hit very hard from the back after which it began toppling. “I thank God I alive and grateful dat de driver of de bus din speeding cause all awe mighta been dead people,” she said.
Myrna Bacchus, 63, of Golden Grove also a victim of the accident and passenger of the minibus said their driver was not speeding as he was almost at a halt to pick up a passenger at Bachelor’s Adventure when the truck hit from behind. She added also that even before picking up the passenger, their driver was not speeding. Bacchus sustained injuries to her back, chest and head.
Seventy-one-year-old Mignon James of 24 Public Road, Nabaclis ECD, who sustained lacerations to her face, said there were about 11 passengers in the bus at the time of the accident but could not say clearly if all had been injured. “I am really thankful to God for being alive,” she exclaimed.
Meanwhile, no one could account for the drivers of the two vehicles. It was unclear whether they had been taken into police custody to assist with investigations, were at the emergency room, or had been treated and sent away.
It is also unclear how many persons were in the truck at the time and whether or not those persons had sustained injuries.
