A six-year-old boy, excited to purchase ice cream from a mobile van around midday yesterday was struck down and killed while running across the road at Farm, East Bank Essequibo.
Saieed Mohamed Yussuff was rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital with head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival. He sustained a gaping wound to his forehead and a broken leg.
The Mitsubishi Outlander vehicle PMM 808 was in its lane heading in the direction of Parika when it hit the child in the middle of the road.
Eyewitnesses said the child apparently connected with the right side of the vehicle’s crash bar before landing on the bonnet. The vehicle came to a halt several feet away and it was then that the child rolled off and landed on the road.
A resident said she was sitting in her yard when she heard a loud screeching sound and saw the thick smoke as the driver applied brakes. She then heard the impact but didn’t realize the child was hit until the vehicle stopped.
By then the child’s father, Mohamed Sheriff, who operates a plant and spare parts shop ran and grabbed him as he shouted his name frantically. Traffic also came to a brief halt and a large crowd gathered.
He ran into his yard with the child before placing him in his car and taking him to the hospital. The child who lived with his mother at Hydronie, Parika would usually spend the weekends with Sheriff.
Reports are that Saieed heard the “Barney songs” blaring from the ice cream van as it was coming out of the street and told his father he wanted. He reportedly ran ahead and crossed the road before his father when tragedy struck.
His grandmother, Nasiba said she left him watching cartoons on television and she was helping Sheriff to water plants at the back. When she heard the loud noise she called out to the child and inquired what had happened but got no response. She was going to check when she saw Sheriff lifting him into the yard with blood on his forehead. The woman said she thought it was a “small knock” and that the child would survive.
Meanwhile, the distressed driver said he did all he could to save the child.
He lamented that he had been driving for over 25 years and “something like this never happened to me.”
He was taken to the Parika Police Station to assist with investigations.
