Three of the survivors of Friday morning’s accident at Coverden, East Bank Demerara, which claimed four lives, are in stable condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
When Stabroek News visited the hospital, truck driver Repish Bhagwandin who was resting in the male surgical
ward said that at the time of the accident he was driving his father’s truck. The 20-year-old who sustained injuries to his neck, was also complaining of chest pains.
Savitri Thomas of Lot 1576 Onderneeming, West Bank Demerara who had injuries to her face said she could not remember much of what had happened, but the driver of the bus, Felix Marc, was not speeding at the time of the accident. “The last thing I remembered was passing Land of Canaan and then I woke up at Diamond Hospital,” the woman said.
“I does always travel with Marc because I know he is one of the safest drivers on the park,” she said. “He doesn’t speed or anything. I was about to enter another bus, but I ended up coming out and going in his bus in the front seat.”
Crystal Mansfield, a relative of two-year-old Mya Evans who is a patient in the paediatric ward, said that she was doing a lot better. “She is coming around, she is eating and talking. The doctor said that he will tell me something today,” the woman said. Mansfield said the child’s mother resides in Suriname and was currently making preparations to come to Guyana.
Meanwhile, Akintunda Cave of Lot 1985 Nutmeg Street, Festival City, North Ruimveldt who was treated and sent away on the day of the accident, said that he was about to reach for a bottle of water when he saw the truck swerve into the path of the bus. “I saw it from the corner of my eye and then all I felt was the impact, after that the bus toppled twice,” the man said.
Cave said that most of the passengers were unconscious as they were being pulled out of the wrecked minibus, but the driver of the bus was already dead. “From the impact alone I knew he was dead; and shortly after I saw his body hanging on the steering wheel,” Cave said.
Another survivor, Orson Ridley had told Stabroek News that he was sitting in the front seat of the vehicle when the truck slammed into it.
When contacted, relatives of Loretta Evans who resided at 158 DaSilva Street, Newton, Kitty said that she had only celebrated her 52nd birthday on Wednesday and was heading to Mahdia to go to church with them. “She said that she couldn’t make it for her birthday on Wednesday, so she will come up on Friday so that we can go to church, she was supposed to travel back on Monday,” the woman’s sister, Evelyn said.
The woman said that their close knit family was still coming to grips with the loss. “We still can’t believe it. The last thing we knew was that she boarded the bus with Delroy and his daughter Mya. A little while after my sister came running and she was asking me the accident, and that Delroy and our sister, Loretta had died.” The woman added that they are making preparations to take the two bodies to Mahdia on Thursday morning for burial later the same day.
Efforts to contact the relatives of Pulmattie Samaroo who also succumbed in the accident proved futile.
Bus driver Felix Marc along with passengers, Delroy Evans, Loretta Evans and Pulmattie Samaroo all perished in the accident, after the Mahdia-bound minibus they were travelling in collided head on with a truck at Coverden in the vicinity of the Kaylee’s Gas Station on Friday morning.
