Several persons sustained injuries following a head-on collision between two vehicles travelling along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway yesterday morning.
Injured are Jermaine Langevine of South Ruimveldt Park; Fawn Kendall, 26; Adrian Green, 30, of Shirley Field Ridley Square; Ralph Hemsingh a German national working here, and his three year old daughter Matilda. Langevine was slipping in and out of consciousness at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where he was admitted after lunch yesterday. He sustained a fractured right leg and several cuts to the head while Kendall sustained head injuries and cuts to various parts of her body including her shoulders.
Green suffered a broken left leg as well as injuries to the head. Hemsingh’s legs were reportedly fractured and he also received a few cuts to the head while his hip was said to be dislocated .His daughter, who was sitting in a baby seat at the time of the accident, had cuts and bruises to the face and her relatives were planning to fly her overseas to seek further medical attention.
According to reports, the accident, which occurred around 10 am yesterday in the vicinity of Yarrowcabra on the Linden /Soesdyke Highway, involved a Toyota Tundra pick-up, which was being driven by Langevine in the direction of Georgetown and a Land Rover with Hemsingh, an operations manager at NAMILCO, at the wheel. The latter was travelling to a farm along the highway.
According to various eyewitness accounts, it was raining at the time and as the two vehicles approached each other, the pick-up swerved into the path of the Land Rover and slammed head-on into the vehicle. The occupants of both vehicles were reportedly trapped inside as public-spirited citizens rushed to their assistance. An eyewitness told Stabroek News that water which had accumulated along the sides of the roadway contributed to the accident, since according to him and others the pick-up was speeding at the time. He related how it, “suddenly start sway after it reach in the water.” One eyewitness told this newspaper that as he was heading in the direction of Linden, he saw the pick-up swerve into the opposite lane and “climb up on the other vehicle.”
He said since it was raining along the highway the driver “should have been more careful.” The injured were rushed to the Diamond Hospital following the collision, but were subsequently transferred to the hospitals in the city. Langevine and Kendall were transferred to the Public Hospital while the Hemsinghs and Green were admitted to the Balwant Singh Hospital on East Street.
Soon after Stabroek News arrived at the Balwant Singh medical facility yesterday, an army vehicle pulled up with the injured and it took the staff several minutes to remove Green and Hemsingh from the tray of the vehicle as the extent of the men’s injuries had first to be evaluated. The two men cried out in pain as they were removed from the vehicle as on-lookers tried to get a glimpse of the duo.
Green’s relatives told this newspaper that the 30-year old construction worker was going to assist Hemsingh at the latter’s farm on the highway when the accident occurred. They said that he had less than an hour earlier dropped off food items at his home in the city.
The young man told this newspaper that he could not recall what happened at the time of the accident; he had been seated at the back of the vehicle with the toddler beside him when it occurred.
Relatives of the two men at the hospital expressed their appreciation to the army officers whom they said had done “the best they could” to assist the injured men.
Over at the GPH, Langevine, the owner of the Fish Shop on Hadfield Street in the city, lay in the Accident and Emergency unit of the medical institution around 2 pm with a bandaged right leg and several cuts to the forehead with a blank stare on his face. Staff at the hospital told this newspaper late yesterday that he was slipping in and out of consciousness when taken to the theatre.
Over the years, accidents along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway have largely been the result of speeding and the police traffic department has been appealing to motorists to drive carefully along this road. Eyewitnesses to yesterday’s accident made appeals to the driving public to exercise caution, especially during wet weather, and persons also called on the police traffic department to be more active along the East Bank of Demerara roadways whenever racing events are being held at the South Dakota Circuit, Timehri.