Leaving home late at night with a newly-bought motorcycle for which he was not licensed and speeding around a turn on the Craig Public Road has left 17-year-old Mike Anthony Beepat dead.
Beepat’s 14-year-old cousin, Shivnarine Nicholas Persaud, who was his pillion rider, is currently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). Persaud suffered several broken bones and has been admitted to the Male Surgical Ward.
In a press statement yesterday police said that the accident occurred at about 11.10 pm on Tuesday at Craig, East Bank Demerara. Investigations, they said, revealed that Beepat was riding motorcycle CD 7488 and was reportedly negotiating a turn when he ended up in the lane of an oncoming van.
Police, in their version, said Beepat and Persaud were taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where Beepat was pronounced dead on arrival and Persaud transferred to GPH. However, an eyewitness told Stabroek News that after the incident Beepat’s body was left lying on the Craig Public Road until about 2.15 am yesterday.
“Is around that time Lyken’s Funeral Parlour come and pick up the body off the road,” the witness, who did not want his name to be published, told this newspaper.
It has become customary for him to sit on his verandah at nights, the witness said, and just enjoy the quiet and fresh air. Just after 11.15 pm, he recalled, he had committed himself to a game of trailing vehicles until they disappeared around the turn.
“I don’t know if you think it is weird but I just sit there and let my mind drift and I trail these vehicles and it is because of this that I saw exactly what happened last night [Tuesday],” the man said.
A Hilux pick-up, he said, came speeding north along the western carriageway. It was headed towards George-town. Beepat and Persaud, he said, came around the turn on the eastern carriageway (headed towards Timehri) at high speed as well. Their bike, he recalled, leaned at an angle towards the left as they took the turn in the road.
“These boys never get to see what hit them because before they coulda straighten up from the lean after the turn they collided with the right side of the pick-up and all I see is all two of them flying through de air and de bike pitch and go its own way,” the witness said.
The impact occurred around the area where Buzz-Bee Dam meets the public road. The rider, the witness said, slammed into the pick-up, was pitched into the air and then landed about 35 feet from the point of impact on the corner of the road.
“I believe he died on impact with the road,” the witness said, “because when I ran out there and I saw him he was a complete mess.”
Persaud was also sent into the air and landed about 25 feet from the point of impact in a drain full of mud.
“I think is because he land in that drain he didn’t die too,” the witness opined. “Afterwards I went looking for him and found him in the drain…other people had gathered by then and we tried to revive him some and then rush him to the Diamond hospital.”
He further said that had the pick-up not been speeding as well the driver would have had enough time to swerve from the motorcycle. The pick-up driver is in police custody assisting with investigations.
“…I wish it was a dream.”
When Stabroek News visited Beepat’s home, preparations were being made for a wake. Grieving relatives were gathered around the dead teen’s mother.
“Ow…Ow no more Mike Anthony Beepat…he go and tek de bike and look how he kill he self,” Patsy Beepat sobbed. “He was such a responsible child…meh baby and look wa he do to he self.”
Patsy had bought the motorcycle for her only son last Saturday. The woman said he kept insisting that he wanted the bike but promised not to ride it.
When Beepat left with his cousin on Tuesday night to go riding his mother was not aware that he’d gone. It wasn’t until news of the horrific accident reached home that Patsy realized her son was gone.
“He gone for good now, for good is not like he going to wake up in the morning. I wish God would just put me to sleep and then when I wake up this would all be a dream…I wish it was a dream,” the distressed mother said.
Beepat, she lamented, shouldered most of the responsibility for their business located on the Soesdyke Public Road. He often worked there until 11 pm and was involved in many activities. He was her youngest child.
“All my children I never had to punish them or give them limits with anything…if they wanted money then they took it but they never abused the privilege,” Patsy said. “I tried to give them everything they wanted.”