A motorcycle race involving two young men ended tragically on Saturday night when one died and the other was seriously injured after they collided with a parked car at Goed Intent, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
It is not clear what exactly transpired at around 11pm on Saturday but a loud impact brought villagers out and they found 21-year-old Sunil Brijhuram and 18-year-old Joshua Higgins lying on the roadway and the motorcycles damaged. The parked car, PJJ 2340, bore damage to its front.
Both men were picked up and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where Brijhuram died several hours later while being attended to by doctors.
According to a police press release, the two men, both of Vive La Force, WBD, were allegedly riding at a fast rate along the roadway at Goed Intent when they lost control of the motorcycles and collided with a parked car.
At the scene of the accident yesterday morning, the green Toyota car was still parked in front of its owner’s home. The man, who is a police officer, declined to give any information on the accident except to say that he was asleep when he heard a crashing sound and he told his wife that someone had crashed into their car.
Some young men in the area said that they came out when they heard the impact and found the two men with injuries lying on the roadway and they assisted in having them transported to the hospital. One of the young men also pointed to a finger in the trench close to the parked car which he indicated belonged to one of the men. It was later learnt that the finger belonged to Higgins.
At Brijhuram’s 42 Vive La Force home, his mother Salima Brijhuram recalled that she last saw her son at around 6:30 on Saturday evening. Surrounded by grieving relatives, the woman said her son, who works with his father as a construction worker, had just returned from work and after having a haircut, he left on his motorcycle which he regularly rides on the weekend.
The grieving woman recalled that her husband called the young man twice during the night and he said that he would return home within a short time. However, they subsequently received a call from a relative who said that Brijhuram was involved in an accident. By the time they arrived at the scene, the man had already been taken to the hospital.
At the GPH, the woman said she saw her son on a stretcher wearing an oxygen mask but he appeared to be conscious. “I talk to he and suh and he open he eye but he couldn’t say nothing because of the mask,” Salima said.
They waited at the hospital while he was being treated but about two hours later, they were informed by a doctor that Brijhuram had died.
Salima described her son as a loving young man who “never in any trouble, he never use to get in trouble and suh.”
She could not say if the young man was speeding on the black scrambler motorcycle. The two were apparently heading home when tragedy struck.
No one was at home when Stabroek News visited Higgins’ home but neighbours said that he was in a critical condition at the hospital.
