A 54-year old mother of five died yesterday afternoon after she was struck down on the Goed Fortuin Public Road on the West Bank of Demerara (WBD) by a speeding mini-bus.
Dead is Bidwantie Cyril of Lot 300, Goed Fortuin Sideline Dam, WBD.
Reports are that around midday yesterday, Cyril had moments earlier left a nearby church and was walking along the eastern side of the roadway heading in the direction of the Demerara Harbour Bridge when she was hit from behind by a Route 32 minibus, BKK 4237, which was heading to the city.
The driver of the minibus later picked up the woman, who was flung more than 20 yards away into a nearby drain and rushed her to the West Demerara Regional Hospital. The woman sustained massive head injuries and a broken left leg, her sister Hansranie Abrahim told Stabroek News.
She said that her sister was later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital but died sometime after 4 pm as she was being treated.
When this newspaper visited the city hospital yesterday, angry relatives converged in the hospital’s compound as many accused the driver of the ambulance which transported the woman to the city of being negligent and “spiteful”. According to the woman’s sister, soon after the family received news of the incident, they rushed to the West Demerara hospital and were attempting to obtain information when the staff there told them to wait outside the hospital compound.
She said that while waiting for information regarding her sister’s condition, the driver of the ambulance told the family that it was a public institution and that they should follow the relevant rules. She said that the man later began arguing with the woman’s son and the two were engaged in a heated argument and they were later parted by relatives.
She said that “it so happens that it’s the same driver had to carry meh sister to the town hospital and he was so spiteful that when he left the hospital we left just in front”. She said that more than 30 minutes after the family arrived at the GPH, the ambulance was still on its way to the city, “and he didn’t even had on the siren”.
She said that what compounded the matter was that on arrival at the GPH, “he had a maternity patient and instead of taking my sister who was unconscious and critical, he went to the maternity section and was laughing at we”. She said the man also performed porter duties for the maternity patient while her sister lay in the ambulance. All the while, she noted, the family could not see her sister and hospital staff also locked the family out of the compound.
The family later received the grim news that Cyril had died and the family noted yesterday that they plan to take the matter to the Ministry of Health since they believed the hospital staff, mainly the driver of the ambulance, should bear some responsibility as regards her sister‘s death.
Meantime, the driver of the minibus, who reportedly attempted to flee the West Demerara hospital after rushing Cyril there, was last evening in custody along with the minibus at the La Grange Police Station.
