A smash-up yesterday morning involving a sand truck and a motorcar on the East Bank of Demerara claimed the lives of three persons.
Suresh Jaman, 39; his wife Indranie Deonarine, 41; and her daughter Amanda Deonarine, 16, all of Lot 12 Supply, EBD, died at the scene.
The accident reportedly occurred around 11am at Relief, EBD as Jaman, who was driving PNN 1696, was overtaking another vehicle and landed in the path of the BK sand truck, GNN 3019, which was heading to Georgetown. Persons at the scene said that the impact sent the car crashing into a fence where it left a huge hole.
An elderly man who works at the Wazir Shariff Wharf, popularly known as Cappy Harris, said that he witnessed the accident first hand and the sight of the bodies cannot be wiped from his memory.
The still visibly shaken man told this newspaper that he had just left the compound and was proceeding towards the shop when he heard a strange sound. “When I look I see this car dash over the road and he crash into the truck and the truck stop about two to three feet away from me; it woulda paste me pon the fence but they break away the whole fence,” Harris said shaking his head. A huge hole could be seen in the fence surrounding the compound.
“The truck driver jump out the truck, me say ‘hey weh you going,” and I start cuss, I tell he come leh we get the people out the car, but he didn’t running, going no way, he jump out and left watching and I tell he come leh we get these people out, but when we go, he say uncle like all these people dead,” Harris recounted.
The man said that when he went over to the car, the young girl was in the back seat panting for breath but the other two persons appeared to have died instantly.
“When me go, the girl in the backseat like she didn’t dead as yet, she de still breathing. By time we tek she out the vehicle and put she on the road, she dead,” he said.
“Oh God, the was horrible fuh see, me couldn’t watch it. The man move me because I couldn’t stand up and watch them. All them people start come. I aint know weh he going with that speed though man, one speed. I don’t know if he didn’t see the truck coming,” Harris added.
At the scene, another man, Mark Pickering, related what had happened. “He was overtaking. He try to pull and the truck man pull same time,” he said. “When I come they had one person lay down on the ground and two been in de car and we take them out the car and put them to lay down. They were already dead. The lil girl, they take her out the backseat and put her on the road first. Then we pull the mother and stepfather,” the man said.
He noted that all three persons suffered visible head injuries.
Meanwhile, at the home, the family gathered in an effort to console Deonarine’s surviving children, two boys and one girl.
Her daughter, Diana Deonarine, explained to Stabroek News that she had received a phone call from her brother who pleaded with her to come home immediately but refused to tell her why.
“He call me this morning and say come fast; I ask what happen and he ain‘t talking, then someone up the road call and say me mother dead, my stepfather and my sister,” she said.
The young woman said that her family was at the time heading to her Sarah Johanna home to drop her sister off for the day. “They were bringing her by me. Every Saturday she is come by me,” she said.
She added that her sister does not attend school and her mother is unemployed. Jaman, she added, works as a lorry driver and supports the family. “He [Jaman] was supposed to bury his mother on Monday,” she added.
