A 62-year-old pedal cyclist of No. 9 Village, West Coast Berbice died yesterday when a minibus hit him around 8:45 am along the Woodley Park road.
Chandradat ‘Darro’ Dhanraj was pitched a few feet away from where he was hit. He suffered injuries to his head and appeared to have died on the spot. The back wheel of the bicycle was badly mangled and the front was broken off.
When this newspaper arrived at the scene just after 10 am a large crowd had gathered and relatives were inconsolable.
Undertakers from Anthony’s Funeral Home were already there preparing to remove the body.
The minibus, BHH 1502 ended up on its side some 200 ft. away in the yard of a vacant house. A female who was in the bus was treated at the Fort Wellington Hospital and sent away.
Driver of the minibus, BHH 1502, Roshan Ally of Blairmont stood calmly with the police as they conducted investigations. No one realized he was driving the ill-fated bus until he was about to be taken to the Fort Wellington Police Station.
He told this newspaper briefly that Dhanraj rode out suddenly in front of the bus and was struck. Relatives heard this and immediately disputed his claim.
The accident occurred between two pedestrian crossings and persons told this newspaper that there was evidence that the driver was speeding.
A resident told Stabroek News that she heard the loud impact and when she looked out she saw the bus spinning several times before toppling and coming to a halt.
Another woman told this newspaper that she was indoors when she suddenly heard “bladam, blam, blam!” When she looked out she saw the bus in the yard next to hers.
She also saw persons running on the road and she too decided to go out to investigate when she saw the man lying on the road, bleeding.
At his No. 9 Village home, Dhanraj’s wife, Latchminia was inconsolable and kept asking why it had to be her husband, whom she was married to for 43 years. She told SN that he worked as a watchman at No. 7 Village and was the sole breadwinner of the home. Along with her he was providing for 10 grandchildren who lived with him. She suffers from heart problems and diabetes and is unable to work.
The distraught woman recalled hearing the phone ring and immediately after, a daughter left home. Although she did not tell her mother anything she suspected that something was wrong.
It was only after they got back that they gave her the sad news of her husband’s death. Her granddaughter, Christine said a relative called and told her of the accident and that her grandfather was killed.
Latchminia said Dhanraj left home around 7:30 am to go to Bath Settlement to bathe his 87-year-old father who is in ill-health. The father of five was returning home when the accident occurred.
