Six of the 10 persons who survived the horrific smash-up between a minibus and a SUV on a lonely stretch of road in the North Rupununi Savannahs, Region Nine are now recovering at the Georgetown Hospital.
Recovering in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the hospital are Hussain Mohammed, one of the foreigners who were in the SUV, and Adreanna Nicemen, a Brazilian. According to Nicemen’s husband, Troy Ashby, she was in the front seat of the minibus when the collision occurred.
He explained that his wife suffered a broken leg, broken hip and fractured rib. She underwent surgery on Monday night, he said. He also told this newspaper that his wife managed to eat something yesterday afternoon but said that she was very jumpy since every time she closed her eyes she kept remembering the crash. At times, he said, she would break into tears.
Meanwhile recovering in the Female Surgical Ward of the hospital is Florence Grimmond, 45, of Lethem, Maylene Foo, 25, also of Lethem and S. Mohammed, the other foreigner who was in the SUV.
A relative of Grimmond said that the woman is mostly grieving at the loss of her three-year-old son Brandon Grimmond. Grimmond was scheduled to undergo surgery last night. She suffered injuries to her pelvic area.
Grimmond’s son was one of three persons who lost their lives in the smash-up. He was rushed to the Lethem Hospital in a critical condition with severe head injuries. A source had told this paper that he was then rushed to a hospital in Boa Vista, Brazil but was pronounced dead on arrival there. Foo is nursing broken arms and a broken knee.
Over at the Male Surgical Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital, Muneshwar Chunniman, 42, of Skeldon, who is nursing a leg injury, related that his vehicle was one of two which were heading back to Georgetown after a tourism promotion. He said that the vehicle in front was engulfed by a cloud of dust that had reduced visibility and when the vehicle he was in realised that the bus was in their lane there was nothing that could have been done to avoid the collision.
Chunniman, Manager of CorTours, said that he was in the back seat of the SUV. The vehicle that was ahead of them, he said, had turned around and lent assistance after the collision. The driver of the SUV, Vishal Singh, escaped with minor injuries. The other occupant of the SUV is a London-based Jamaican.
The collision occurred on the Hunt Oil section of the Georgetown-Lethem road and resulted in the deaths of the driver of the minibus, Juliano D’Aguiar, 21, of Lethem; passenger Lalis Antone, 52, of Shea, Deep South Rupununi and three-year-old Grimmond of Lethem.
Several persons were injured and 10 were air-dashed to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Police had given the time of the accident as 8 am, when the minibus BLL 4059 and SUV PKK 3942 collided along the road, resulting in the death of the three. Fourteen others were hospitalized.
Immediately following the incident, the passengers of a few vehicles that were in the vicinity began a rescue operation and managed to free most of the persons. Contact was made with the Meterzeer Ranch and the information was relayed to Lethem and several other vehicles raced to the scene.
The injured were dashed to the Lethem Hospital, treated and referred to Georgetown for further treatment. Four planes were dispatched to airlift the injured.
The horrific accident shocked the border community, where the second annual Rupununi Expo had just concluded. (Tiffny Rhodius)