Michael Gordon, the driver who was transporting overseas-based siblings Raymond Khan and Jean Williams when they died in a fatal crash on Sunday, was yesterday charged with causing their deaths.
Gordon, 43, of 21 Peter’s Hall, East Bank Demerara, was placed on $1 million bail yesterday after he was charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
Magistrate Fabayo Azore read the charge, which alleges that on September 14, at the Mabura public road, he drove motor vehicle GMM 7330 in a manner dangerous to the public, thereby causing the deaths of Khan and Williams.
Gordon was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charges.
No other details concerning the accident, which occurred at the Rockstone/Linden junction, were presented in court.
In an application for reasonable bail, Gordon’s attorney, Alexis Leslyn Charles, said that the persons who died in the accident were relatives of Gordon and that this fact by itself had been a form of punishment for him.
She said her client was the sole breadwinner of his household and had a fixed address, thus posing no risk of flight.
The prosecution, however, objected to the accused being granted bail given the nature, gravity and prevalence of the offence.
Prosecutor Seon Blackman also emphasised that two lives had been lost.
In rebuttal, Charles suggested that conditions be attached to the granting of bail as opposed to a complete denial.
Charles said that Gordon was also injured in the accident and had to be hospitalised for four days. She opined that if he had wanted to flee, he could have done so since he was not under police guard while in hospital.
It was at this point that Blackman acceded to counsel’s request for conditions to be attached if the court decided to grant bail, which he submitted should be set in a substantial sum.
Magistrate Azore subsequently informed Gordon that his bail was set at $1 million and imposed the condition that he reports to the officer in charge at Linden Police Station every Friday.
The case was transferred to the Linden Magistrate’s Court for October 7 for reports.
The siblings, Khan, 64, and Williams, 60, were born here but resided in Canada and Trinidad, respectively, and had returned home for a visit when they met their deaths.
They were in a vehicle on their way to Bartica by land last Sunday, when its tyre blew out at the Rockstone/Linden junction, causing it to topple several times. Three other persons were injured including Williams’s son, Leroy ‘Romeo’ Williams, his wife Sandra Williams and the accused.
They were all rushed to the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC), where Williams and Khan were pronounced dead.
