Minibus driver Seon Caesar, who was critically injured following Saturday’s accident on Norton Street in the city, succumbed to his injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday afternoon.
The man’s mother told Stabroek News yesterday at her Stevedore Housing Scheme home that youngest of her three children passed away shortly after 3pm while being monitored at the Intensive Care Unit of the GPH. She said he was crying out in pain, mainly from the head injuries he sustained in the accident in which over a dozen persons were injured when the route 41 minibus Caesar was driving turned turtle on Norton Street.
The 35-year-old man leaves to mourn three children and according to his mother, his aged father was “taking on” the family’s loss yesterday.
She was upset that persons from another media house showed up at her home on Saturday night and relayed that Caesar had died, while asking the family for a photograph of the man. She said she was mourning since then, however, later that night someone told the family that her son was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the injuries he had sustained.
Most of the persons involved in the accident were discharged from the public hospital when this newspaper checked yesterday but 16-year-old Keoma Tulluch told this newspaper from his hospital bed that he was awaiting the doctors’ orders to be discharged. The young man sustained cuts to the left eye, which was swollen yesterday, right shoulder and elbow and his left leg was fractured.
He related that he was sitting in the seat behind the conductor as the minibus moved along Norton Street when there was a sudden impact, following which he recalled persons lying on top of him after the bus overturned.
He said he was placed in a vehicle and rushed to the hospital where persons made contact with his relatives to inform them of his condition. The lad noted that the minibus was speeding at the time and that several passengers had complained about the speed at which the driver was going.
Hospital sources noted yesterday that the two-year-old child who was involved in the accident was being monitored in the ICU, but they could not state the extent of the child’s injuries.
The Route 41 minibus turned turtle several times on Norton Street on Saturday afternoon around 5 pm before landing in a drain, resulting in injuries to at least fifteen persons. Drinking, speeding and poor driving skills have been blamed for the accident which left the minibus mangled and created chaos as passers-by rushed to rescue the occupants.
According to an eyewitness the bus was heading west along Norton Street and was attempting to overtake a vehicle while another was proceeding east along the road. According to the eyewitness, the bus “clipped” the vehicle in front of him and spun out of control crashing into the yard of the house located at Lot 9 Norton Street.
Two passengers of the bus related to this newspaper that the driver was drinking and speeding during the journey.
This newspaper was told on Saturday that Caesar was not the regular driver of the bus.
