Police are investigating a fatal accident that occurred at about 9 pm on Saturday at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice.
Dead is Narine Gajadhar called Ryan, 20, of #9 Village WCB, who according to a police press release was run over by a motor vehicle. The release said that initial investigations have revealed that Gajadhar was lying on the roadway and was run over by the vehicle. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Fort Wellington Hospital.
Relatives, who spoke with this newspaper, have said that they have received no information surrounding the circumstances of Gajadhar’s death.
According to his sister, Anjo, sometime after 9 on Saturday night she received a phone call from a girl informing her about the accident at Bath. Upon their arrival, she said, Ryan’s body was lying on the road and the police had already arrived.
Anjo related that when she tried to get a close look at her brother she was questioned by the police as to who she was, to which she responded. She was still prevented from seeing the body. By that time the deceased’s father, Milton, along with his brother, David had arrived on the scene, and according to Anjo they too were prevented from viewing the body, despite the fact that they had identified themselves.
When they were about to leave for the hospital with the body, David recalled, a policeman asked him and his father to accompany them in the vehicle to the hospital, to which they both consented and “jump in de car”. However, they were subsequently told by the police to exit the vehicle, which they did, so “only the driver [of the car PLL 2132] and one police go with the body to the hospital”, and the relatives followed behind. Upon their arrival at the hospital, they were told by two porters who were on duty at the time that they “can’t lift the body, so is me and meh father and meh sister had to lift he [from the car to the ice tray in the mortuary]”. David and Anjo both revealed that they were verbally abused by the police, when they asked for their brother’s phone and salary, which he was carrying with him at the time, “they start to cuss up and chase we out.” The relatives of the deceased were told to return to the station yesterday morning, but when they did so they were told to return today when Inspector Persaud returns, and when the post- mortem examination is scheduled to take place.
Relatives are uncertain as to the present position of the driver of the silver-grey car which ran over Ryan, as the last they saw of him, Anjo said, was just before the police closed the door to the station in their faces, “they switch off the light and the driver collected his cell phone and belongings, and they took him to the back and lock the door, [so] after we couldn’t see nothing we left”. The police statement said that the driver is in custody assisting with investigations.
According to the dead man’s father, from what he saw of his son’s body, the car “run over he neck, he hand break and he get some scratch”.
Gajadhar’s sister said she learnt that her brother left Bush Lot [where he works as a tractor operator] in a minibus, heading for home. However, she was informed by “some girls” that he stopped out at Bath.
