The life of a 50-year old East Bank Demerara (EBD) truck driver was snuffed out in an accident at the Houston EBD bypass yesterday afternoon.
Dead is Kenrick Mitchell, a father of five of Mocha Arcadia, EBD and an employee of Readymix Concrete Limited of the Eccles Industrial estate.
While accounts provided by persons at the scene varied, it was stated that around 13:15 hrs yesterday Mitchell was riding his motorcycle, CF 2932, around a turn heading in the direction of Timehri a few yards away from the entrance to Gafoors Shopping Complex when the accident occurred. He died on the spot.
According to a witness who was working in a yard nearby, he heard a screeching sound along the roadway, and on investigating, he saw the man lying on the median separating the opposing lanes on the nearby EBD roadway. He said that the accident occurred “so quick” that no one knew whether the man’s motorcycle was hit by another vehicle heading in the same direction or whether the man had simply lost control of his motorcycle.
When this newspaper arrived at the scene, several police officers were controlling road traffic which had slowed to a crawl as persons enquired the reason for the traffic hold-up.
The man’s motorcycle lay on the parapet, gas leaking from the tank, as curious onlookers converged on the scene. No one knew who the man was until two of his colleagues recognized him from two x-ray films which he had in his possession. One of the man’s friends said that several minutes earlier he had spoken to Mitchell on the phone about his illness.
When Stabroek News went to the man’s Mocha home, his wife Vanessa Mitchell was on her way out of the community and she asked this reporter for information on her husband’s condition. She was taken to the Ruimveldt Police Station where the grim news of her husband of 10 years passing was relayed to her by officers there.
Vanessa Mitchell told this newspaper that her husband had been on sick leave since Tuesday of this week and he had an x-ray done because of the illness. She said her husband was suspected to have stomach cancer and he left their home some time after lunch yesterday to uplift the results of the x-ray when the accident occurred.
At the family’s home, his foster daughter, 17-year old Coleen Eastman was inconsolable as she recounted the man’s contribution to the family.
She said Mitchell, being the sole-bread winner of the family, worked hard to take care of his family’s welfare and his passing was a significant blow to the family.
She also said that the deceased had a substantial amount of money in his possession at the time of the accident.
Eastman stated that her parents were planning to attend a satirical show at the National Cultural Centre on Saturday evening and it was while she was washing her mother’s hair yesterday in preparation for the event that the family was informed of the accident.
She said that her mother‘s joyful mood transformed immediately into one of concern and she promptly left the house for the scene of the accident.
Kenrick Mitchell is survived by his wife and five children, three of whom are from a previous union.
