A pedestrian and a car passenger were killed at Kairuni on the Linden Highway yesterday afternoon when a driver lost control of his vehicle which ended up in the bush.
Dead is Christopher Benjamin, 57, a resident of the Amerindian community of Kairuni who was hit while walking along the road, and a male identified only as ‘Justin,’ a passenger in a blue-green Toyota Scarlet Turbo PLL 9021.
According to an eyewitness account, the car had just sped over a bridge at the bottom of a hill when it hit a depression in the road causing the driver to lose control. The vehicle then skidded over into the opposite lane finally coming to a halt in some bushes off the highway.
“All I see deh car bounce out he lane, over deh road crash into uncle Benjie and fly in deh bush,” said a young man who was walking some 500 yards from Benjamin.
According to Anetta Daniels, Benjamin had just finished helping her to construct a chicken pen at her Kairuni home.
“He just done eat after helping me mek deh chicken pen and was going home and he get killed,” Daniels said yesterday. The woman recounted how she heard a loud impact and shouted to others in the area that there was an accident on the highway. “I never expected fuh see uncle Benjie involved, he was such a peaceful man on the way home.”
Daniels described how when she arrived on the scene, she saw Benjamin’s mangled body in the bushes and the Toyota Scarlet lying crumpled between a clump of trees with the lifeless body of ‘Justin’ hanging out.
Other residents told Stabroek News they assisted in taking out driver Elton George of 37 N Bent St Wortmanville, front-seat passenger Don Walcott called ‘Country’ of 112 1st Alley Hill Foot Wismar Linden and Keon Moah, 28, of 224 Blue Berry Hill Wismar Linden.
Monah who was asleep in the seat behind the driver escaped with minor injuries and is a patient at the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) along with George who suffered chest injuries. Walcott, however, was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital having suffered injuries to both eyes and the chest.
According to Monah, “I was asleep. When I ketch myself is when deh were pulling me out deh car.”
Walcott said that he was seated next to the driver and when he realized what was happening he attempted to assist him in controlling the car, but his efforts proved futile. His wife Shelly Skeete said that he went on business to Georgetown and was returning home when the accident occurred. Walcott is a known taxi-driver in Linden. The mother of the driver said that she got news of the accident while attending a funeral in Linden. She said obtaining information from her son was very difficult, since the injuries to his chest were inhibiting his efforts to speak.
No documents were found in or on the car to verify its owner and it was not clear if the three men had hired the vehicle to transport them to Linden.
A niece of Benjamin told Stabroek News last evening that the dead man was a farmer who came originally from Mabaruma in Region 1 but had been living in Kairuni for several years. He was not married and had no children. His surviving relatives include his mother, three sisters, two brothers and several nieces and nephews.
Over the years several persons have lost their lives in the vicinity of Kairuni, in some instances in hit-and-run accidents and in others following collisions with trucks and other vehicles.
