A nine-month-old baby died yesterday morning following a boat accident in the Cuyuni River while her mother is being treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital for severe head injuries.
Sara Simmons died when the boat she, her parents and four other occupants were travelling in collided with another some half an hour away from Aranka.
According to the infant’s father, George Simmons, he and his wife, Nandanie Singh, boarded the boat around 10:00 hours and shared it with three Brazilian nationals. The family was travelling back to their home at Agatash, Essequibo.
The man explained that he and his wife were seated in the last row of the boat and he opted to jump over to the back to assist the captain in bailing some water. He said after finishing doing that, he turned around and saw another boat travelling in their path.
Simmons said that was the last thing he was able to remember and related that it appeared as though he was the only passenger to fall overboard. “When I regain consciousness the two Brazilian guys were pulling me back into the boat,” he said.
The man told Stabroek News that as he looked around, he saw the third Brazilian national, a woman, holding his daughter and wailing loudly.
“I ask she wah happen to my baby and she was crying so I collect de baby and the baby wasn’t moving at all so I pull she in closer and when I feel behind the baby head it was bleeding, her head get bust up,” the man said sorrowfully, adding that the baby was already dead at that time.
He said he handed the dead child back to the Brazilian woman and attempted to help Singh who was lying in the boat, groaning in pain. “My wife was lying on the floor of the boat and was trying to get up…her face was smashed in and blood was everywhere,” he said.
Simmons said that the captain of the other boat assisted them over into his boat which then transported the group to the Bartica Hospital where his wife sought medical attention but had to be transferred to the GPH. In Bartica, Simmons said, he was told that his wife had suffered severe head injuries.
This newspaper was told that no one else was injured in the boat accident. At the GPH, relatives gathered and anxiously awaited word from doctors on Singh’s position. She was taken to the St Joseph Mercy Hospital to have a CT scan done. Results of this were not yet revealed to the family when this newspaper contacted them.
Meanwhile, in Bartica, one of the two captains involved in the accident was said to be in police custody assisting with investigations.
