– condemns cops over shoddy probe
A Mahaica resident is decrying what he described as shoddy police investigation into an accident on Friday night, which resulted in him losing his minibus which was his only means of income; he alleges that ranks at the Mahaica Police Station are only focusing on protecting the businessman who owned the vehicle that caused the accident.
A distraught Ramkumar Mangru visited this newspaper yesterday calling for some form of justice following the accident early Friday night on the De Hoop, Mahaica River Road. The man said he was travelling on the road around 8.30 pm when he observed a vehicle coming towards him. Because he realised it was a big vehicle, he decided to pull in the corner since the road is very narrow.
However, instead of passing him, the vehicle–which he later realized was a tractor–crashed into his minibus. Mangru said at the time he had the minibus in “first gear and when the tractor hit me bus like I left pin in me seat but I try to turn off the engine but it not coming off, it just keep revving.”
Mangru said he eventually managed to free himself and rolled out of the bus which then moved on its own for a few yards and partially ended up in a trench before bursting into flames.
“Right now is just a shell I have. The whole inside burn out,” the man said.
Meanwhile, after hitting the bus, Mangru said, the driver of the tractor reversed and parked on the opposite side of the road before the two occupants disembarked.
“Dem ain’t come to me assistance or nothing. Dem ain’t try fuh help me out of de bus. I coulda burn in deh,” the man bemoaned.
He said as he lay crying out in the grass persons–including the owner of the tractor–arrived in two vehicles and it was a brother of the owner who took him to the station before the police took him to the hospital. The man said when he returned to the police station, he pointed out the teenager who had been driving the tractor at the time. However, the police told him that another man said he was driving at the time.
“Dah man was nowhere around, he come in a green pick up after the accident. When I tell de police is the lil boy been driving dem tell me how I gat to get evidence because dah man say is he was driving,” Mangru said.
He, along with the man who claimed he was the driver, was then placed in the police lock-ups and released the next morning on bail. He said initially the businessman and his relatives had told him to pull his bus out of the trench and they would check to see if the engine and any other parts are still in working condition and they would get a shell of a minibus and fix it up to ensure he has a minibus to use.
“But then dem change dem mouth and tell me how I must go to the insurance and deal with it and wah ever still have to do after the insurance dem guh pay,” the man said.
He said the police are also compromising the investigation by advising the businessman as to what to he [Mangru] should tell the insurance company.
“De man call de police on he phone, the same police who investigating, but he went in Berbice at de time, and he tell de man to tell me that I should tell the insurance when I driving I look in me rearview mirror and I see de bus on fire and how I drive to go in the trench to save the bus and is den de truck hit me. Tell that make sense? Why I must go and lie,” the man questioned.
He claimed that the police have not been thoroughly investigating the matter and are only bent on protecting the rights of the businessman.
“Right now I don’t know what to do because de bus was me only means of income and I gat three children and me wife guh deliver anytime now,” the man said.
To make matters worse he only has third-party insurance coverage and the company has since told him that he can receive no money.
Mangru plans to file a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority and also to visit the office of the Commander of ‘B’ Division.
