Terrence Griffith the minibus driver in the Amelia’s Ward accident that left him and NCN reporter Akeela Jacobs dead on Saturday had been speeding on the way up and down.
Lying in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the GPHC Ravena Gildharie, a Guyana Times reporter is in constant pain having suffered a fractured left leg and a broken hip.
Over at the male ward a more fortunate Mohamed Nazim also of NCN is nursing his injuries. Those accident survivors who were at the Linden Hospital were transferred to the GPHC yesterday afternoon.
As reporters gathered at the hospital talk of the accident abounded and Stabroek News learnt that the driver of the minibus had been speeding on his way up and also on the return trip. One reporter who made the trip up with the bus, but was among the four media workers who chose to return to Georgetown with a GT&T pickup, said that the bus made its way to Linden in 45 minutes. The reporter said that persons had complained to the driver about the manner in which he was driving but he had behaved “arrogantly.”
The reporter also said that on the trip up a police officer at the Madewini police outpost had attempted to stop the bus but the driver “flew past” him.
Meanwhile Gildharie told Stabroek News that she does not remember much, as she was lapsing in and out of consciousness all the while. What she does remember though is that she was sitting directly behind the driver and when the bus crashed into the back of the truck she was pinned down by the cross bar that reaches across from window to window behind the front seats of the bus.
“Everything happened so fast,” the reporter who must have covered her own share of accidents, related yesterday.
Nazim also said that everything happened with lightning speed and before anyone realized what was happening the bus had slammed into the truck.
The media operators were returning from the commissioning of a new GT&T cell site at Ituni on Saturday when tragedy struck. The driver of the bus died on the spot, while Jacobs succumbed on her way to the GPHC. The accident occurred shortly after 6 pm but the ambulance transporting Jacobs and Gildharie from the Linden Hospital arrived some minutes before 10 pm at the GPHC.
