Three families are in chaos following an accident on Friday night, which took the lives of two persons and has left another is critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Hospital.
Dead are Neil Overton, 44, of 36 John Street, Lodge and Ryan Mc Bean, 31, of 176 South Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara and North East La Penitence. Amputee, 37-year-old Yonette Mc Donald is clinging to life.
Mc Bean, who was riding a motorbike sustained a broken neck as well as injuries to his head, while Overton sustained massive head injuries and several wounds about his body. It is believed that Mc Donald fractured her skull. She is unconscious.
Reports are that the accident occurred around 10.30 pm at the corner of Homestretch and Mandela avenues, just where the National Cultural Centre is situated.
Overton and his reputed wife Mc Donald, who is confined to a wheelchair, were making their way home when the motorcycle ridden by Guyana Post Office (GPO)employee Mc Bean collided with them.
There is some speculation by Mc Bean’s family that a car, which is at the East La Penitence Police Station, might have played a role in the accident.
Stabroek News was told that Overton was pushing the wheelchair when the motorbike hit him from behind. The bike then reportedly collided with Mc Donald causing her to hit the ground headfirst.
The three victims were picked up and rushed to the hospital. However, Mc Bean was pronounced dead on arrival while Overton passed away while receiving treatment.
This newspaper could not ascertain whether Mc Bean was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
At Mc Donald’s home yesterday, her aunt Alice told Stabroek News that she sells various types of seasonings in the Bourda Market. Alice said Mc Donald, who has no children, was a diabetic.
“After a while it got bad. They first cut off her toe and then nine months ago her left foot was amputated,” Alice said.
She said when she arrived at the hospital around 11.30 pm on Friday, Overton, who had been living with Mc Donald for the last three years, was already dead.
Alice said the doctor told her that her niece has a “50/50 chance” of survival. “He said that she got a swelling on her head and said she will have to get a scan… Her sugar is very high. Uncontrollable.”
Mc Donald’s situation is complicated because of her high sugar level.
Alice said Overton sold shoes and clothing at the Bourda and Stabroek markets. The woman said all she knew about Overton was that he was from Linden.
Mc Donald, she said, also leaves to mourn, a sister and her father Edward Fraser.
At Mc Beans’ Vryheid’s Lust home, his relatives were still trying to come to grips with his death. Mc Bean’s older brother, Dexter Troy Mc Bean, had also died by accident in January last year. Reports are that Dexter, who was a minibus driver was making his way up to Vryheid’s Lust when, in the vicinity of the National Library, he went into convulsions and lost control of the vehicle.
The man’s family had disputed that Dexter went into convulsions.
A relative said she was told that Ryan was taking the motorcycle back to his workplace since he was not allowed to keep it overnight. The relatives are at a lost as to how he could have caused such a tragic accident when he was only riding a motorcycle.
Another relative told this newspaper that a car parked at the police station may have hit McBean from behind causing him to run into the two other persons.
Stabroek News was told that the young father of a three-year-old daughter had been employed at the GPO since he was about age 18. His distraught mother Martha told this newspaper that her son was set to have a promotion very soon. She said he was also scheduled to marry Pauline Adams, the mother of his child, in July.
She said, Ryan’s death was too sudden after that of Dexter’s and she believes there is something more to the deaths of her sons than meets the eye.
Martha said she received a message at her workplace saying she was needed at home and she left and went down to the park to catch a bus.
It was while standing at the park that she received the dreadful news from a girl she knew.
She described her son as a ‘good boy’.
Ryan leaves behind his parents Martha and Cedric, five siblings, his daughter Shaila and reputed wife Pauline.
