Several persons were injured yesterday when a minibus and a car collided on Main Street in the vicinity of the Palm Court Restaurant and Bar.
Those injured were the bus driver Marlon Bowen, who sustained head injuries, Travis Lucky, Errol Welcome and Violet Chester. They were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital and were being treated at the Accident and Emergency Unit up to press time.
The Route 44 minibus, BRR 8028, was heading to Plaisance, on the East Coast of Demerara when the accident
occurred at around 2:30pm. It was moving north along Main Street, while the Toyota Raum, PMM 2442, was heading in an easterly direction on Hope Street.
Witnesses at the scene said that the bus was speeding at the time of the accident. “The bus was speeding and the gold car was coming out of Hope Street.
He knock into the bus and then the bus crash into another silver car and started to spin several times, then it end up on it side in the corner by Palm Court gate,” a witness said.
She added that at this time several persons were making their way out of the bus. “A lady came out with her baby and I told her told to come and sap the baby with some water. Another lady come out and started to wash off her hand, like she get cut up bad. Two other men had a set of blood on they skin and one of them like he get blackout. He just fall down on the ground,” she stated.
The woman also said that several persons in the bus had complained to the bus driver minutes before the accident. “People in the bus de saying how the bus go to turn over since at Water Street. The lady with she baby say how she told the driver to slow down, because she ain’t late and now look wah happen,” the witness said.
The driver of the car said that he had just left work and was heading onto Main Street when the accident occurred. “I was not speeding. I just leff work and was driving onto Main Street. The bus was speeding coming down the road and I knock into the bus and then he end up knocking two other vehicles that were parked in the corner,” the man said.
Another eyewitness, however, said that the bus driver was not in the wrong. “The man in the Raum was wrong. He supposed to give those on Main Street the right of way but he did not stop at the corner. He clip the side of the bus and the bus wheel blow out and flip over and then the bus end up on its side,” the witness explained.
Meanwhile, one of the passengers of the bus, a man who was in the front seat, said that the bus was not speeding. “The bus was not speeding. The car come out from the street and knock the bus. The bus was not overload or anything,” the man said.
