By Alva Solomon
An accident yesterday morning on the Bee Hive, East Coast Demerara (ECD) Public Road has left a family which was on its way to trade at the Plaisance Market, nursing injuries to various parts of their bodies, including broken limbs.
Injured are Leslie Anthony Simon 47, driver of one of the two vehicles involved in the accident, his wife Anita Mangal, 37, and her children Nicola Stoute, 18, Nikkita Stoute, 15, Nathan Stoute, 12 and Leslie Simon Jr. A neighbour Avinash Ramnauth, 13, and 14-year-old Stephen Walcott also sustained injuries.
The elder Simon reportedly sustained the brunt of the injuries which included a gaping wound to the lower abdomen while both of his feet were said to be broken and may have to be amputated, his wife noted. She sustained a fractured left leg and cuts to the face, Nicola sustained a large cut to the forehead and cuts and bruises about the body while Nikkita sustained cuts and bruises about the body. Their brothers Nathan and Leslie both sustained broken legs and cuts and lacerations about the body and were both admitted to the hospital while Walcott sustained a fractured left leg. Ramnauth sustained a broken right leg and was said to be in a serious condition and he too was admitted to the hospital.
Mangal told this newspaper at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where the injured were rushed by public-spirited citizens, that she and the family had minutes earlier left their Unity Backdam, Mahaica home for the Plaisance Market when the accident occurred. That was around 5:45 am and the family was “attempting to catch de market”.
She said that she and one of her daughters were seated at the front of the family’s canter truck while the others were travelling in the vehicle’s tray. Mangal said that as the vehicle was about to cross a bridge on the public road at Bee Hive she observed a truck “tryin foh overtake a car” which were both travelling in the opposite direction. She said that there was nothing more her husband could have done, as the truck which she noted was speeding, crashed head-on into their vehicle, at the right hand side of the roadway just as the canter crossed the bridge.
The woman said that her husband “get it flush”, adding that he was crying out in pain when persons at the scene rushed to assist. She said that the driver of the truck was attempting to drive away from the scene but he was subsequently stopped by persons nearby. The woman stated that the other occupants of the canter were all flung out of the vehicle’s tray on impact.
The occupants of another vehicle, a family which also vends at the Plaisance Market, said that they were following Mangal and her family at the time adding that as the canter was about to cross the bridge, the truck swerved into to the path of the vehicle, and the two vehicles collided head on. Eyewitnesses to the accident also substantiated this and when this newspaper visited the scene yesterday shards of glass lay on the road close to the sides of the bridge. Persons in the area told this newspaper that the sparsely populated community was awakened by a loud impact on the nearby roadway.
The canter was parked in the compound of the Cove and John Police Station when this newspaper visited the area yesterday afternoon but the whereabouts of the driver and the truck involved in the accident could not be determined.
Meanwhile, Ramnauth’s distraught mother Shaneeza Alli was at a loss for words as she awaited the results of an x-ray which was being undertaken on her son at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit of the GPH yesterday. She said her son left the family’s Unity Housing Scheme home on Saturday evening around 8 pm but she did not see him until yesterday morning at the hospital. She was upset that she and her family could not locate her son all night Saturday night.
Persons in the Unity Backdam area told this newspaper yesterday that many young boys were employed as labourers and attempts were even made sometime last week by residents in the area to contact officers from the Ministry of Education who were undertaking a truancy campaign in the area. A resident told this newspaper yesterday that after the Mangals moved into to the Unity area, several boys would spend time with the family and were paid to assist in the transportation and packing of goods.
The family trades grocery items at the Plaisance Market every Sunday and there is said to be a rush to “to find space” there on Sunday mornings.
