A one-month-old baby died early yesterday morning and several persons were injured after a car ploughed into a utility pole on the Friendship, East Bank Demerara (EBD) Public Road.
The baby, Sabrena Robinson, died after the accident sometime around 8 am.
Injured are 26-year-old Shameeza Ally and 20-year-old Shaneeza Ally of Craig Old Road, East Bank Demerara, 30-year-old Shafiek Ally, his wife Maria and her son Alex of Diamond New Scheme, EBD and the driver of the vehicle, 30-year-old Lakeram Ramcharitar of Grove Squatting Area, EBD. The baby was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
The injured were taken to the GPHC for treatment and five were subsequently admitted. Shameeza and Shaneeza Ally, sisters of Shafiek Ally, father of the baby, sustained abrasions to various parts of their bodies. Shameeza also suffered a broken leg while her younger sister Shaneeza complained about pain in her shoulder and arm.
Maria, mother of the deceased, had many small cuts and scrapes about her body; and the left side of her face was badly swollen. Alex, the woman’s five-year-old son was not seriously injured, suffering minor abrasions about the body.
Shafiek Ally still in shock from the accident walked around the hospital compound grief-stricken at the loss of his child. The man constantly complained of pain in his left rib cage but refused to seek medical attention.
An eyewitness who lives across the road from the scene of the accident told this newspaper that the accident was like something from a movie. According to the man, he was standing in front of his house when he saw the car heading south come around the slight bend in the road.
The car just swerved into the corner as it approached the bridge on the road with great speed, he said, and literally flew across the small trench, hit the lamp post at the corner of the trench, flip over and then crash into a clump of bush on the opposite side of the trench.
In the process, the eyewitness said, he saw the driver of the vehicle pitch through the windscreen and land in a close-by ditch. “I help the man in the front seat (Shafiek) to get out of the vehicle”, he said. “The only thing that saved him from pitching out of the vehicle was his seatbelt; the driver didn’t wearing his own.”
The man further explained that the baby was pinned down under the brake pedal of the vehicle and the child was still alive and crying when she was finally removed from that position. Shaneeza Ally, he said, lay with half of her body on the vehicle’s front bonnet and the other half in the vehicle. “At first I thought de dark skinned girl (Shaneeza) was dead when I see she but after I got closer I realised that she was just unconscious,” he explained.
Other residents of the area said that that particular part of the Friendship Public Road was dangerous and accidents occurred there at regular intervals.
Lakeram Ramcharitar, the driver of the vehicle, from his hospital bed said, that he was heading south along the Friendship Public Road when a blue car in the process of overtaking a line of other vehicles headed north towards him. The man who suffered a neck injury and a broken right leg explained that he hadn’t much of a choice. He said he could’ve either collided head-on with the car or try to avoid it; he settled for the latter.
Shafiek Ally told this newspaper that the driver was under the influence of alcohol, however, when confronted with this Ramcharitar said that this was a false allegation.
