Three persons, including a pregnant woman, died on the spot yesterday morning when the car they were travelling in sped out of control and landed in a ditch at Friendship, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
Police Sergeant Shurland Thomas, 40, of Lot 10 Supply, EBD and his in-law, Tameka Brumell, 22, and her brother Dayson Brumell, 26, both of Lot 8 Supply, EBD, were all pronounced dead on arrival at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre. Tameka Brumell was more than eight months pregnant,
Police stated yesterday that investigations have so far led them to believe that Thomas, who was driving the car with licence plate PNN 6791, lost control of the vehicle, which spun into a trench on the western side of the road.
At the Brumells’ home, several family members and friends gathered and said that they are still trying to absorb the reality of what had occurred.
Their father, Rudolph Brumell, recalled the morning’s events. “I get up and cook for them around 3:30 this morning. I finish cooking and take out their meals and I go back and relax,” the man said as he bowed his head.
He explained that it was around 6:15am that his children left home for their respective jobs. Tameka was a security guard attached to Strategic Security Service and Dayson was an employee of the Torginal Paint Company. He noted that they both would usually travel to the city by way of bus but yesterday, their cousin-in-law, Thomas, who lived a short distance away, offered them a ride.
The grieving father said that about half an hour later, a shop owner from the village called him and asked if his daughter had left home as yet.
“She call and ask about my daughter first, must be because she was pregnant. Then she ask about the boy too… I said the two of them gone together and she said, ‘I gon tell you the truth… they dead,’” the elder Brumell recounted.
The man said that he travelled to the scene of the accident but by the time he arrived, the vehicle and the bodies were already removed. “The people tell me that they were at the Diamond Hospital but I was encouraged not to go there,” he said, adding that he was told that all three persons had died on the spot.
Tameka, he noted, was the mother of a two-year-old girl.
Meanwhile, at Thomas’ residence, his wife, Laticia Thomas, surrounded herself with few loved ones, who quietly consoled her. The woman said she received the news of her husband’s accident from her mother who was informed by a friend.
Mrs. Thomas said that she immediately rushed to the scene and found her husband and the two occupants of the vehicle lying on the ground. She confirmed that they were already dead at that time.
According to the woman, her husband’s car was overturned in a trench and a truck was used to pull it out. In the process of doing so, she said, Thomas’ body and that of Dayson Brumell fell out of the vehicle.
“When they pull out the car, only Tameka was inside so they had to go in and search for my husband and Dayson. I don’t know if they were trying to get out the car before or what,” she explained.
It was speculated by the family that the persons had drowned.
The bodies have been taken to the Lykens Funeral Parlour and Mrs. Thomas told Stabroek News that police have since indicated to her that they will be in contact as investigations proceed. Thomas had served in the Guyana Police Force for more than 20 years and up to the time of his death, he was attached to the Eve Leary Headquarters. He was a father of two.
