Anuradha Dawan, eight years old, clung to life in the ICU at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for three days before succumbing to injuries she sustained after being hit by a bus last Friday.
Anuradha, of ‘A’ Field Sophia, left her home around 4 pm on Friday. Amit Dawan told Stabroek News that his younger sister was on her way to the shop to get water when she was hit by a private minibus. Amit said he learnt from witnesses that his sister was standing at the corner of the ‘B’ Field Sophia Access Road, waiting to cross, when the accident occurred. The vehicle was reportedly speeding, he said, lost control, and slammed into his sister.
It was her mother who sent Anuradha to the shop, he said, and after she failed to return within a certain period of time they became worried. His mother then asked their father to go see where the child was. Before he could leave their yard, word of his daughter’s accident reached him.
The child was rushed to GPH. She was immediately treated and admitted to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Amit said his sister was “hooked-up” to several machines. “Those machines were keeping her alive yes, but they were also prolonging her death,” Amit said.
Just before 8 am on Sunday, he recalled, his sister succumbed to her extensive wounds. The same day, the man said, the driver of the private minibus was taken into police custody and remained there up to yesterday. This newspaper has since learnt that he is expected to be charged shortly.
Since the incident, the dead girl’s older sister told Stabroek News that their mother has not stopped crying. The woman lapsed into a state of shock after learning of the child’s death. “She blames herself somewhat for what happened but we keeping telling her she shouldn’t…we all feel pain at losing my sister but I guess we can’t understand what my mother feels at losing a child,” she said.
When Stabroek News visited the Sophia home yesterday afternoon the Dawans were still making wake preparations. The child is expected to be cremated shortly.
His sister, Amit stressed, was “a happy child without a care in the world” and had so much more to experience in life. While the family is greatly distressed, he said, getting justice is the thought foremost on their minds.
Meanwhile, several ‘B’ Field, Sophia residents have spoken out against what the described as the reckless use of their access road. “These days even I don’t go out on the road by myself,” an old woman said, “because these vehicles just come speeding in this place…just the other day a car jam a girl and she break her foot…I too old to take a knock like that.”
Another resident pointed out that at night the road was particularly dangerous because of the lack of street lights. “It is sad that this child die,” the resident said, “but I notice that now ah days if somebody don’t die at some bad bridge or some bad piece of road or some dark road then nobody does do anything about it.”