-residents call for action to stop “Road Head” deaths
A man who was returning home from a friend’s wake died Sunday night after he was hit by a car along the Agricola Public Road, East Bank Demerara.
Douglas Forester, 51, of Lot 35 Agricola, had just left the wake of a friend in the village when he died shortly after 8pm Sunday. Reports are that Forester left the western side of the road and was crossing towards the eastern side when he was hit by a car heading south along the eastern carriageway. The driver of the vehicle which was reportedly speeding was taken into police custody that night and remained there up to yesterday. In a statement issued last evening, the police said motorcar HB 3721, owned and driven by Nizam Khan, 47, of Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, was proceeding south along the western lane of the eastern carriageway when Forester attempted to cross and was struck down. He died before receiving medical attention, police added.
“Even if he had been drinking,” a relative told Stabroek News yesterday, when asked about reports that had indicated Forester was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, “the driver of that vehicle was speeding and he was not careful… Douglas was not a man who drank until he forgot himself.” The relative explained that the man had left home earlier that evening to attend a friend’s wake in Agricola. Forester reportedly left the wake around 8pm and shortly after, as he was making his way home, the motor vehicle slammed into him causing “instant death” an Agricola resident said yesterday. “I can’t tell you exactly what happen but I know that when he pick up to go to de hospital he didn’t moving, he de already look dead,” the resident explained.
The accident occurred at the Agricola “Road Head,” an area notorious for several fatal accidents that have occurred in the vicinity this year. Forester’s relative stressed that something had to be done about the “Road Head” area, where a street meets the Public Road, because it is “dangerous.” “I don’t know if they can put a traffic light or something there to slow down traffic or do something to make drivers proceed there with caution,” the relative said, “He [Forester] was not the first person to lose his life there and he will not be that last. Something needs to be done.”
Forester was the sole provider for his family and leaves to mourn his wife and seven children. The man was employed at a popular Robb Street, Georgetown store.
On the night of February 28 Terrence McKend was beheaded and his friend Bruce Waddell of 129 Cato Street, Agricola sustained severe head injuries. The two men were on a bicycle when they were hit by a sand truck along the Agricola Public Road, a short distance from “Road Head,” Agricola.
Jaisankar Gobin, called Kumar, of Lot 363 Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, died several days after being hit by a car a short distance away from the notorious Agricola location. Gobin, 40, was attempting to cross the Agricola Public Road on February 23 when he was hit by the car sustaining injuries which later proved to be fatal.
Shaneis Henriques, 12, of Lot 34 Agricola Public Road died on the night of January 27 after being hit by a Land-cruiser which had swerved to avoid hitting a car on the East Bank Highway at Agricola. The accident occurred at Agricola “Road Head.”
