An Anna Regina man is dead and two others have been hospitalised after the driver of a motor lorry lost control of the vehicle, causing it to topple along the Barama Road at Buck Hall, Essequibo Coast.
Dead is Chaitram Sooknarine, 32, also called Sheldon, of Anna Regina Housing Scheme, Essequibo Coast, who was a passenger in the lorry. Ricardo Pearson, 20, and his brother Trevor Pearson both of Mainstay Village, Essequibo Coast sustained injuries.
In a press release issued late yesterday afternoon, police said the deceased and the two Pearson brothers “were in the tray of a motor lorry, which was proceeding along the Barama Road, when the driver is reported to have lost control of the vehicle, which toppled, resulting in them [sustaining] injuries.”
The three men, police said, were taken to the Suddie Hospital, where Sooknarine was pronounced dead on arrival. Trevor Pearson has been transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) while his brother is still a patient at the Suddie Hospital, police said.
Taabindra Ramcharran, called ‘Tabo,’ of Cotton Field, Essequibo Coast, told Stabroek News yesterday that he was driving the lorry, GKK 8652, at the time of the incident. He recounted that he and the three others were coming out from Buckhall, some time between 4 and 430pm on Thursday, when tragedy struck.
The driver said they had driven up a hill and down another. When they approached a turn at the bottom of the second hill, he said, he applied the brakes to slow the vehicle. However, the brakes did not respond.
Ramcharran said that because of this he could not make the turn. He further explained that because of the weight of the truck the edge of the turn in the road could not hold it. The road, he said, had become too soft as a result of the constant rainfall. The truck, according to Ramcharran, toppled over twice before landing on its tyres once again. “Ah hold on to the steering wheel while the truck was toppling over,” Ramcharran said.
The driver further recalled that when the vehicle landed on its wheels, he was thrown out through the windscreen. Ramcharran said he landed several feet away. The windscreen, according to him, was shattered when Ricardo, who was in the front seat of the truck, pitched through it.
When he managed to get up, Ramcharran recalled, he saw Ricardo lying on the ground, his face covered with blood. Immediately after he located Ricardo, Ramcharran said, he began checking for the other two passengers and saw Trevor and Sooknarine lying on the ground bleeding heavily. Shortly after this, Ramcharran said, he too collapsed on the ground.
The men were rescued by another truck which was travelling along the same trail some distance behind them. It was that truck which took them to the Buckhall landing, from where they were taken to Supenaam by boat and then to the Suddie Hospital.
Sooknarine, according to the truck driver, died while receiving medical attention. All four of them, the driver insisted, made it to the Suddie Public Hospital alive.
The deceased, who is the second of two children, has left to mourn his wife, Kaywattie; six-year-old daughter, Humesha; his parents and siblings.
His grieving mother, Latchmin Sooknarine, said this was her son’s second trip to the location. The deceased and his injured colleagues, according to her, were employed with the Cotton Field/Three Friends Small Loggers Association.
When this newspaper visited Sooknarine’s home last evening, preparations were already in place for a wake.
