A three-year-old boy is in a critical condition after he and his sister were struck down at Mahaicony on Wednesday morning by a minibus driver who allegedly fell asleep at the wheel.
Komal Balkaran, of Lot 4, Quakers Hall, Mahaicony, has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he is said to be in a serious condition after complications arose with one of his lungs.
“They say he ain’t got no problems with he head, no broken arms or foot. Is just he lung that injure,” the child’s mother, Sabena Balkaran, told this newspaper as she sat in the waiting room of the hospital yesterday.
Sustaining minor injuries was 19-year-old Sita Balkaran, who is currently a patient of the female surgical ward. The girl suffered several bruises about her body with more severe ones to her leg.
Sabena told this newspaper that the accident occurred around 10am, while they were returning home from a nearby shop. Their mother was not at home at the time. “I was at the NIS office looking after some documents and when I come out some people tell me my children get accident on the road in front my house,” she recalled.
The woman said she rushed to the Mahaicony Hospital, but when she got there she was told that the children had to be rushed in an ambulance to the GPH. “I get a bus and come down quick and find both of them downstairs at the accident ward,” she said.
The mother related that the driver spoke to her later that evening in the presence of the police and admitted that he had fallen asleep. She further stated that the man indicated he had been travelling to Berbice.
According to eyewitnesses, the man was said to be on the other lane, in the path of oncoming vehicles.
The children’s aunt, who lives close by, allegedly saw when they were struck down and pinned by the bus which reportedly flipped before coming to a halt. The driver escaped unharmed, while the boy, whose face was said to be badly disfigured, was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state. His sister, meanwhile, wept in pain.
“The neighbour take them to the hospital in they bus. My baby was under the bus…all the skin on his face tear away,” the mother said mournfully. Sita, from her hospital bed, told this newspaper that is unable to remember anything but can only say that she and her brother were almost home after running an errand at the shop. “I just wake up and see I in the hospital,” she said.
The children’s mother stated that she is uncertain of the progress of the police investigation and she has not yet heard again from the bus driver. “It’s supposed to be a load bus that does sell at Bourda Market… was he alone in the bus,” she noted.
