Passengers travelling in a Route 45 minibus narrowly escaped death after the bus toppled twice before landing on its side at the junction of Carmichael and Quamina streets.
When Stabroek News (SN) arrived on the scene yesterday the number plates had already been ripped off the bus, which had a shattered windscreen and broken windows that bore traces of blood.
This newspaper understands that the bus was travelling east along Quamina Street when it slammed into a taxi, HB 3931, which had just overtaken another vehicle, and was travelling north along Carmichael Street. The bus then slid onto its side then toppled, hitting a car, PGG 3703, before coming to a rest on its side.
Several passengers in the bus, inscribed with the name ‘Outlawz’ were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital with minor injuries. All three drivers escaped unhurt.
Apart from the battered bus, both cars were completely smashed at the front and broken glass littered the scene.
One eyewitness told SN that the minibus driver was extremely skilful since he managed to control the bus even as it was balanced on its left side wheels before coming to a halt.
A passenger in the bus posited that while the bus was travelling at a fast rate, it was the taxi which appeared suddenly from Carmichael Street that had caused the accident. “He wasn’t going all that fast but the taxi overtake another vehicle and that’s how come the bus end up slamming into it and then start toppling and a little before it stopped it slammed into the other car which was coming from Beacon direction.
I was trembling and other people in the bus start getting frightened and some of them were still very shaky,” the man recalled.
The driver of the second car, Michael Brown, told this newspaper he saw the minibus, which he said was speeding, before it crashed into him and toppled before his eyes. “I had just left CCWU and saw it coming but they normally speed through this street because they try to escape the traffic lights, by the time I realized what was happening the bus skate and ended up jamming into the front of my car,” Brown said.
The driver of the taxi was not as vocal with the media, neither was the ‘Outlawz’ driver who stood guard over the many speakers which were being removed from the bus.
