-passengers escape with minor injuries
Several passengers escaped with minor injuries yesterday afternoon after their Mahaica-bound Route 44 bus toppled several times on the East Coast Highway, obliquely opposite the Texaco Gas station, near Liliendaal.
Those injured are 60 year old Bibi Khan and her 19-year-old son Premnarine Khan, 22 year old Amanda Grenville and her two sons ages 4 and 6, 19-year-old Treslyn Rose of Jonestown, Mahaica, Shamini Hanoman, 30-year-old Joyan Todd of Cane Grove, Mahaica, and her 7-year-old son. They were all rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital shortly after the accident. The other passengers were reported to have escaped with minor cuts and bruises.
Khan sustained injuries to her neck while her son suffered cuts and bruises to parts of his hand. Grenville was also in severe pain while her son escaped with minor injuries. The others appeared to have suffered minor injuries while Todd sustained most of the injuries including a fractured right hand and cuts and bruises to parts of her body.
She told Stabroek News that she was sitting in the back seat of the bus, which departed the bus park around 3:45 yesterday, and while in the vicinity of Conversation Tree, the bus started swerving while attempting to overtake the truck. Soon after, the still shocked woman related, the bus toppled on its side. Other passengers provided similar accounts of the accident.
According to an eyewitness, she was on duty at the Texaco Gas Station when she heard an explosion and saw smoke. She said when she looked over the road she saw the bus, which was heading east along the roadway, with what appeared to be smoke emanating from its right side. The woman related that soon after she noticed the bus toppling on its side as a truck which it may have hit continued moving east along the roadway.
She said when the bus finally came to rest on its right side on the left side of the road, persons nearby ran across the road to assist the injured. She said she and other persons were surprised that the driver of the truck continued along the roadway without rendering assistance to the injured.
Stabroek News was informed that the driver of the bus BKK 6964, Phillip Henry escaped with minor injuries and was reportedly in police custody yesterday afternoon while the whereabouts of the truck and its driver was unclear.
The bus was parked in front of the Sparendaam Police station yesterday afternoon.
