The life of a 21-year-old businessman was snuffed out yesterday afternoon in an accident on the De Kinderen Public Road at Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Dead is Shamal Mohammed of Lot 224 Second Street, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, while 19-year-old Asif Mohammed (not related), of Farm Squatting Area, EBD the other occupant of the vehicle involved in the accident, is nursing an injury to the left leg.
According to reports, around 1.30 pm yesterday the two young men were returning to Berbice where Shamal and his relatives were operating a recreational facility at the Berbice Expo in New Amsterdam. Shamal, who was driving at the time, lost control of the vehicle and collided with a fence.
Persons in the De Kinderen area told Stabroek News that the car was travelling at a fast rate along the public road when the driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the fence. An eyewitness told Stabroek News that the car uprooted several poles which the chain-link fence was connected to, before coming to a rest in a yard. According to hospital sources, a piece of wooden material from the fence pierced Shamal’s left side chest and he reportedly died on the way to the Mahaicony Hospital where the two men were rushed following the accident. Asif was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) shortly after 4 pm yesterday.
Asif told Stabroek News that he and his friend were travelling along the roadway when the vehicle “suddenly slip off the road”, and according to the injured man, his friend was driving at “about 100 mph” at the time of the accident.
He said he exited the car and his friend did also, but cried out for help and he noticed that his friend had a gaping wound to the chest, with a piece of wood protruding from it. They were rushed to the hospital by public-spirited citizens.
While no one was at home when Stabroek News visited Shamal’s home at Herstelling yesterday afternoon, neighbours and friends gathered to mourn the man’s death. According to a neighbour, Shamal and two other siblings have been operating the recreational facility, which comprises trampolines and a Ferris wheel, for over a year .The pieces of equipment are regular features on the Kitty Sea Wall on Sunday evenings.
The man’s parents and other siblings reside overseas and they are expected in the country later this week.
Yesterday’s was the third fatal accident in three days. On Saturday evening, 18-year old Somall Ram Singh called ‘Satesh’ and ‘Beco’ of Woodley Park, West Berbice, was struck down on the Number 12 Public Road by a motor car as he was cycling along the road. The young man succumbed to his injuries on the spot and his mother has since posited that the driver of the car involved, PLL 7837, was at fault.
On Sunday, 68-year old Bernice Herbert was killed when a car mowed down a group of pedestrians waited for transportation on La Union Public Road, West Coast Demerara.
Wanda Ramkisson and her mother Eugenie Wilson, who were among the injured, were recovering yesterday. The 55-year-old Wilson told Stabroek News from her hospital bed at the GPH that she was experiencing pains about her body, including her hip and her left hand, from which one of her fingers was severed.
She said her daughter, who was asleep when this newspaper visited the hospital yesterday afternoon, was experiencing pain in her legs as well as the head. She sustained a gaping wound to the forehead which required 10 stitches.
The driver involved in that accident is in police custody and he is expected to be charged shortly.
