A military woman was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) early yesterday morning after suffering injuries when the car she was in slammed into a concrete structure at the Texaco Gas Station at Bel Air.
Tiffanny December, 18, a member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), was rushed to the hospital some time around 5 am yesterday. She is believed to have succumbed within minutes of the accident. Quincy Farrier, 30, who was driving the car, PKK 1841, at the time of the accident, suffered multiple injuries.
The couple was proceeding along the East Coast Public Road towards Georgetown when Farrier slammed into the concrete wall around the gas station’s sign at Bel Air Village. The accident occurr-ed at approximately 4.30 am.
In a press statement yesterday afternoon the hospital said Farrier of Lot 282 West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, Georgetown and the deceased of Lot 7 Yarrow Dam, Ruimveldt arrived at the hospital around 5.05 am yesterday. Farrier, according to GPH, suffered injuries to his left hand and foot and his chest, while the woman was pronounced dead on arrival.
A security guard, who works at the gas station, said he was at the back of the compound when he heard “this big, loud, smash-up sound.
“After I hear this sound I rush in front and see this car smash into the concrete rail around the gas station sign,” the man said, “…from how this thing look I done say that anybody inside dead.”
- This is the wall around the Texaco sign into which the car slammed. (Tarick Pertab photo)
The man and other persons helped to remove December and Ferrier from the smashed remains of the vehicle. At that time both of them were alive but covered in blood.
“When I reach in front I didn’t see no other vehicle out on the road and I don’t know how this man end up slamming into this thing… He mus’ be catch a five at de wrong time,” the security guard stated.
Meanwhile, another man told Stabroek News that he was in Sophia, located behind Bel Air, when he heard the impact.
Christine Francis, December’s mother, told Stabroek News yesterday morning that she had last seen her daughter around 9.30 on Thursday night. December, she said, worked in the office of Commodore Gary Best at Camp Ayanganna.
“She came home from work that night [Thursday] and went to the shop to buy some things to take back to the base [Camp Ayanganna] because she said she had inspection the next morning,” the distressed mother recalled. “I told her to stay in her barracks… I don’t know why she went out.”
Francis said she learnt from her daughter’s colleagues that the young woman returned to the army base on Thursday night and then left to go out.
Francis said that neither she nor her reputed husband, Edward December, knew Farrier.
“Was about 6 this morning [yesterday] one of my daughter friend from work call and tell me she hear that Tiffanny was in a accident,” Francis said.
The woman said she immediately made her way to GPH and was told by a nurse that they had an unidentified female who had been taken in earlier from an accident. Francis said when the plastic was removed from her daughter’s face she could not believe her eyes.
“I stood there staring and then I started to cry… I just couldn’t believe that she was there and being carted to the morgue,” Francis said adding, “and her face was covered in blood.”
December leaves to mourn her parents and younger sister. She had joined the army in March and had recently completed her training.