By Sara Bharrat and Melissa Charles
A truck driver, who swerved to avoid colliding with a number of cows last night on the Bee Hive Public Road, East Coast Demerara, ended up smashing into a minibus. Three occupants of the minibus, one of whom was the driver, were killed and several others injured.
Dead are 27-year-old Marisa Assay of Jonestown, Mahaica; driver of the minibus 40-year-old Desmond Datterdeen of Lot 340 Helen Number Two, Mahaica and 54-year-old Akbar Mohammed of Lot 9 Helena Number Two, Mahaica.
Injured are: Julian Wilson, 34; Raghunand Singh, 20; Lorese Cole and her husband Sergeant Kojo Cole of the Guyana Defence Force; Dwayne Luis, 17; Ruth Melville, 41; Eldicka Luis, 27; Raul Wood, 35, and his 27-year-old sister Jacklyn Wood; Ramanand Sankar, 25; Tamek Webster, 20; and 31-year-old Abiola Sufrein.
Wilson was said to be in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where the injured victims were taken for treatment.
According to reports, the collision occurred at approximately 7.30 pm yesterday. This newspaper understands that the minibus was driving through Bee Hive, en route to Mahaica, when a truck, trying to avoid colliding with a number of cows on the road, smashed into it.
When this newspaper arrived at the hospital, eight injured persons were awaiting medical attention, while one was already receiving treatment.
“He dead! He dead! I just been in ah accident. Me foot lil thing, but dem dead!” one of the injured screamed into her cellular phone as she awaited treatment at the crowded emergency room at the GPH last night.
Some time after Stabroek News arrived at the hospital, the warning wail of the ambulance’s siren could be heard as it entered the compound.
Patient’s relatives, individuals seeking medical attention and many strangers crowded on either side of the hospital’s emergency room entrance as the ambulance came to a screeching halt. The three lifeless bloodied bodies, two male and one female were carted into the emergency room.
The onlookers began to push and tug and screams and moans of horrors were heard as the bodies were wheeled in. One of the injured victims could be heard screaming uncontrollably as the bodies were wheeled past her.
Seventeen-year-old Dwayne Luis, a high school student, who was in the minibus when the accident occurred, told this newspaper that he and two women were sitting in the seat directly behind the driver’s seat when the truck smashed into the minibus.
“I don’t know how it happened,” the teenager said, still shocked from the experience. The side of his face had streaks of dried blood but he did not appear to be seriously injured. He recalled that one minute he was sitting there and the next minute he was pitched towards the front of the minibus.
The shaken teen explained that he was sitting next to the window on the right-hand side of the vehicle. “I jump through the window to get out ah there,” he recalled. “These two girls,” he said pointing to two injured females, “were sitting next to me.”
At the scene of the accident, a mixture of shattered glass and blood covered the area of the road. Eyewitnesses recalled seeing the truck swerving away from the cows and into the minibus. The owner of the cows is not known.
Assay was a teacher at the Gibson Primary School, Unity, Mahaica. She was married just last year and leaves to mourn her husband, five-month-old daughter and relatives. Datterdeen, a former teacher, leaves behind his three children and wife.
Mohammed, a former salesman at the Woodlands Hospital’s cafeteria, was a bachelor.
Datterdeen’s relatives were in shock at the news of his death when this newspaper visited his home.
Over at Assay’s home relatives just wailed.
There was no one at Mohammed’s home.
