By Iana Seales
The driver of a canter truck who was reportedly rushing to the city yesterday slammed into a car at the junction of the East Bank Highway and Rahaman’s Park which then went on to hit another canter.
No serious injuries were reported but a female who was in the car was rushed to a city hospital. She was treated and sent away.
The collision halted traffic on the highway resulting in a heavy back-up of vehicles shortly after 11 am. A crash truck sped to the scene within several minutes of the accident arriving when Stabroek News turned up to pull the mangled remains of the car PKK 6575 from off the road to aid the flow of traffic.
Policemen were on the scene directing traffic since one of the canter trucks was still on the road having turned over upon impact. This canter was carrying close to 80 sacks of cement and after colliding with the car it fell on its side spilling the sacks of cement onto the road.
The driver of the canter who identified himself as “Earle” told Stabroek News that the car came from nowhere and hit him. The man said he tried to control the canter and keep it on the road after the collision but the vehicle ended up hitting the road and turning over on the right side where he was.
“I say ah dead when this truck topple and land on the side I deh on but I was wearing my seat belt so I get save. I manage to crawl out and lucky fuh me no injuries, no scratch nothing”, the man related.
Earle could not recall seeing the car the woman was in before he approached the junction. He said it was all very sudden and that it would have been difficult to see her given that she was not in his lane.
An eyewitness at the scene recounted that the woman was coming down from the East Bank along the public road at Rahaman’s Park. She then approached the junction to make a turn and apparently signalled as she did so. She was waiting at the junction to turn when the canter which was also heading in the direction of the city came from behind and hit her. The impact sent her over to the lane in which Earle was travelling and in the path of his canter truck.
According to the eyewitness, Earle hit the car the woman was in after she landed in his path and sent her crashing into the concrete partition that separates the eastern and western carriageways on the East Bank highway. The eyewitness said Earle might not have seen her since it happened very quickly, adding that even if he had there was little he could have done to avert trouble.
But Frank John who told Stabroek News that his fiancé was driving the car said she made no attempts to turn at the junction. He said the canter came out of nowhere and hit the car as it approached the junction sending her flying into the other lane where she collided with the other canter truck.
The driver of the canter truck which hit the woman’s car said he had no comment to make when approached. He was sitting in the canter after the accident and according to the eyewitness, only emerged once to see what had happened and went back into the vehicle.
