A speeding, overloaded vehicle is believed to have led to the Corentyne tragedy that left a mother of two dead on Sunday.
Drupattie Indal, 32, was one of 16 people who were being transported in a pick up, belonging to a Com-munity Police Group Patrol of ‘B’ Division, when it collided with a parked tractor after the driver lost control of the vehicle. Indal, who was seated in the tray of the pickup, was thrown out of the vehicle, along the Number 53 Village roadway. She was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
The passengers in the vehicle were among 100 persons who had earlier returned from Orealla, an Amerindian reservation up the Corentyne River, having gone there on a paid excursion organized by the Community Policing Groups (CPGs) in Berbice. According to Maureen Chattergoon, wife of Narine, the Coordinator of the CPGs, the touring party had departed Springlands landing between 15:30hrs and 16:00hrs, with groups joining four vehicles.
She told Stabroek News that the groups included persons who had previously bought the $3,000 per person return ticket to Orealla. Chattergoon explained that it was the first excursion trip organized by the CPGs and it was open to anyone. As a result persons came from the West Coast, Canje and Corentyne areas in Berbice.
Chattergoon said her husband was behind the wheel of the vehicle when the accident occurred. However, she claimed that the unevenness of the roadway, coupled with the overweight in the tray of the vehicle made it difficult for her husband to control the pickup.
The woman, who displayed abrasions and swelling to the right side of her face, recalled being seated in the front of the vehicle with her sister Yvonne Alli, 57, who along with another sibling, Pulmattie Khandahi, 47, had to be rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The injured woman said too that on leaving the vehicle she saw the bodies of the other passengers, who seemed to be unconscious, strewn along the thoroughfare, with blood spattered on them.
The sight, she said, caused her to feel unwell, and villagers in that community assisted her in their yard, prior to the arrival of transportation to the Skeldon Hospital where she, along with others were seen and then transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital. Many of the passengers, she said, were treated and sent away.
‘Speeding’
According to Sean Ross, a resident of Number 53 Village, the white “low down” pickup was travelling west along the public road at Number 53, when the driver lost control of the vehicle. He said the out-of-control vehicle consequently collided with a Route 44 minibus, BHH 9083, which was parked on the bridge of the Ross’s Lot 6 residence. The impact jammed in the rear end and damaged the differential of the minibus and then broke off the rear wheel of the 399 Massey Ferguson tractor, which was parked on the road side next to the minibus.
Another eyewitness told this newspaper that they were on the road liming “when this police pick-up pass we full speed” and swinging from one side of the road to the next. The speed and swaying of the vehicle attracted the attention of quite a few onlookers who followed it because “we done know that this gon either knock down somebody or run into something,” the witness said, “This is shame pon them police because them does deh telling people nah fuh drive speed.” He said that when they got to the scene of the accident, there was a number of empty and filled Mackeson (stout) bottles.
The woman who died was flung out of the pickup and into a RAV 4 parked a short distance away. They said she probably died on the spot, given the condition she was in when they put her in a minibus to take her to the hospital. “About 10 to 12 other body been in the van and almost all a them get bruise, cut, bruck hand and foot,” the witness added.
‘Coming home’
Meanwhile, at Indal’s Lot 23 Section ‘C’ Cumberland Home, in East Canje yesterday, villagers were making a tent for a wake. Her 12-year-old daughter, Davanie Kirpasanker, related to this reporter that her mother was a good woman who should not have died like that. “When mummy left on Saturday morning, she told me to take care of the house and look after things until she return on Sunday,” the girl said, in a whisper. “She telephoned me at 3 pm from Springlands. She told me that she was waiting for transportation to collect them and when it come she will call me back…. but she never did…
“About an hour after a lady called [telephoned], she asked for my mother. I said she was not there. The person asked if she gone to Orealla, I said yes. Then the woman asked who big was at home, I said no one. She said there was an accident. My father was at work at Guysuco, so I told my relatives who lived nearby, and we went to my grandfather and related what happened. A little later another call came through and the person said my mother was dead, but I did not believe as she promised to come back home….”
Davanie’s eight-year-old brother Uvash was his usual jolly self, not understanding the seriousness of death. Asked whether he understood what was happening, with a big smile on his face he said no. But he was quick to add that his mother would come home soon. When this newspaper visited the home the children’s father was not at home. The relatives who were with the children said he had gone to Springlands to make arrangements for the post-mortem examination.
Meanwhile, Indal’s brother Tommy Khandai, who was also on the overnight trip, but escaped unhurt as he had travelled in another vehicle, is happy to be alive. But he is sorrowful that his siblings faced the brunt of the injuries, with Indal being killed and Alli and Pulmattie Khandahi being seriously injured.