The death toll from road fatalities grew over the weekend when at least six people lost their lives and Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell is blaming “carelessness” on the country’s roadways for the situation.
“This is supposed to be Road Safety Month. I don’t know what is happening, it is just carelessness…. People are causing their lives to be snuffed out,” Brumell told Stabroek News
in wake of the spate of fatal and serious road accidents. “We have to appeal to persons to be more responsible in the use of the roads. People are just driving and are going at great speeds and are not able to control their vehicles,” the commissioner added.
Those killed were Percival Chester, 29, of D’Urban Street, Lodge and Tianna Holder, 19, of Bent Street; Dianand ‘Anand’ Singh, 45, of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice; Bhimchand Ramphal, 45, of Number 19 Village, Corentyne; and Hasib Bulla, also known as Hakam, 50, of and Juman Ally, 56, of De Willem South.
Taxi driver Chester was driving HB 9361 along Mandela Avenue at around 9.30 on Sunday night, allegedly at a fast rate, when he lost control of the vehicle.
The car turned turtle and ended up colliding with two vehicles that were parked in the compound of the Rubis Fuel Station.
Chester and passengers Holder, Ulanda Ghent, and Shinika Ghent, 29, received injuries and were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital. Chester and Holder were pronounced dead on arrival while the other two persons were treated and sent away. Both Chester and Holder worked with the Crown Cabs Taxi Service, which was in the news last week when its dispatcher, Vanessa Williams, was shot dead and a driver wounded during the a rampage by gunman Deryck Kanhai, who killed four people before his own death.
Holder, like Williams, was a dispatcher at Crown Cabs.
Her mother, who described her as the “nicest young lady,” said that she had only started working as a dispatcher at the taxi base three weeks ago. She said the girl was attending Global Technology school to prepare for examinations she was due to write next June.
The former Marian Academy student had left home for church and then to attend a wake in Middle Street for Williams. According to her mother, the family received a phone call about the accident at about 10.30 pm and relatives immediately rushed to the hospital.
“After the wake they were heading to Williams’ home in South. We heard that he was speeding and he lost control of the car…,” the woman said.
Berbice
Meanwhile, Singh, a labourer, died after he was struck down by a Toyota 4Runner vehicle on Sunday evening.
Reports are that he sustained severe head injuries. He was said to have died on the spot and his remains were transported to the Fort Wellington Hospital mortuary.
His spouse, Tresha Boodhoo, 25, said she was sitting on roadside stall at the market listening to the crusade in the village when she noticed Singh crossing the road at about 8.45 pm. She said her husband, who was consuming alcohol earlier, was in the middle of the road when he met his demise.
The driver of the vehicle, which bore licence plate PHH 9161 and which belongs to the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary/Agricultural-Development-Authority (MMA/ADA), continued driving. Police were able to locate the vehicle and the driver after finding two parts of the front number plate at the scene.
Police said in a release that Singh was “struck down by a motor vehicle while walking along the Public Road at Bath Settlement.” The release confirmed too that the driver fled the scene in the vehicle.
Singh is survived by his wife and three children who are below the age of 10.
Ramphal, who was also a labourer at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), died after leaving his Lot 63 Number 19 village Corentyne, Berbice, home on Saturday afternoon to see a friend who is visiting from abroad. He is believed to have been struck down by a drunk driver on the Number 19 Public Road.
His widow, Hemwattie Kaiso, 33, and their four children were in shock over his death yesterday.
She said after Ramphal left home, she went to her mother nearby. An hour later, she saw people “running up the road.” “I deh telling mommy them something happen up the road… So we decided to go and see wa happen,” she said, explaining that when she arrived at the scene she saw a car in the trench.
Soon, she learned that her husband was involved in the accident but when she checked in the car, she did not see him. A resident pointed her to his body, some 200 feet away from the point of impact. The grieving woman said she saw her husband in a motionless state and it appeared as if he had died on the spot. “Ah start to scream after I see him,” she recounted.
The man was pronounced dead on arrival at the New Amsterdam Hospital. Kaiso said Ramphal’s friend told her that while they were approaching his yard, the speeding PNN 8167 came from nowhere and hit him, pitching him into the air. The friend also noted that the driver, who was the lone person in the car, appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. He is said to be currently nursing injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The mourning widow told Stabroek News that Ramphal was the main breadwinner for the family. She said she would have to depend on family members and her vending at school.
Madhuri Ramphal, a daughter of the deceased, said her father was generous and loving towards his the family. “He would go the extra mile to support us,” she said.
West Demerara
In a separate accident at Meten-Meer-Zorg on Sunday morning, Bulla and Ally were killed when a car slammed into them as they were talking on the roadside of the Meten-Meer-Zorg Public Road.
“Them man stand up dem till in de grass gaffing and Juman went tapping a cigarette in he hand and the man who foot bruk he went pun a motor bike and when me look me see a white 212 speeding coming …from town side and it crash into all three a dem,” an eyewitness, Mohammad, only name given, told Stabroek News on Sunday. The man explained that the biker was thrown up in the air and landed not far from his bike while the other two men were dragged some 200 feet before the vehicle came to a halt.
Residents rushed to the assistance of the three men but could see that Bulla and Ally were already dead. Nonetheless all three persons were taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, where Bulla and Ally were pronounced dead and their companion Latchman Chand was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. The driver of the vehicle was taken into police custody after the accident.
