Police are investigating the death of a biker, who was discovered motionless on the East Coast Demerara (ECD) roadway at Montrose early yesterday morning by a relative who was looking for him.
Dead is Jonathan Validen, 43, a national of Canada, who lived at 2738 Pigeon Island, ECD. According to the police, Validen lost control of his bike and fell. However, relatives are not so sure that was what caused his death, after finding a piece of a number plate at the scene of the accident, which they said did not belong to his motorcycle.
According to a police press release, investigations revealed that Validen was riding his motorcycle at a fast rate, when he lost control of the vehicle and fell. He sustained injuries and was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Validen’s wife, Jennifer Validen, told Stabroek News that she last saw her husband alive, when he left their home on his motorcycle, at approximately 2 am, to return to a bar, where he had been hanging out with friends. She said that it was two hours later that her sister-in-law called her and asked her to go the GPH, where her injured husband had been rushed. “When I got there he was dead,” she added.
Meanwhile, the biker’s brother-in-law Jermaine Kippin, told this publication that he had discovered his brother-in-law curled up at Montrose, in an unconscious state and in a pool of blood. The man said he immediately contacted the police and rushed Validen to the hospital.
Kippin explained that he made the discovery while he was on his way to the couple’s home, upon Jennifer’s request to search for Validen, who was in the habit of hanging out with friends at a city bar, in the early hours of the day, to the annoyance of his wife.
Jennifer said that after she heard and disagreed with the police’s claims that her husband’s bike might have toppled, because of the speed he was travelling at, she launched her own investigation. “I went back to the scene and found a piece of number plate that wasn’t from Jonathan’s bike,” she stated, adding that persons in the area gave her a different version of the incident from the police’s. She said there was an eyewitness account from a security guard in the area at the time of the accident.
Subsequently, the police revisited the scene in the company of Jennifer and Kippin to conduct further investigations.
Validen’s death follows that of Bennett Beveny, who died on November 3, at Montrose Railway Embankment ECD, after his motorcycle collided with a truck that swerved in front of him. Another biker Wallace Nurse, also died after his bike slammed into a parked car on the Goedverwagting Railway Embankment ECD on June 19.
All three bikers, according to relatives, were wearing helmets at the time of the accidents.
Validen, according to relatives, had a huge laceration to his head and bruises about his body. He is survived by his wife and one-year-old daughter.
