A young motorcyclist, who was hit down last Sunday by a speeding minibus, remains bedridden in the hospital and his family says police appear to be protecting both the driver and the owner of the bus, who are an ex-policeman and a serving member of the force.
Nowaaz Hassan, 18, of 165 Martyr’s Ville, Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, left his home just after 6PM last Sunday and promised to return shortly. He did not return and efforts by relatives to find him led them to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he was in a critical condition.
The family learned that Hassan was involved in an accident, sometime between 7PM and 8PM on the Good Hope Public Road. Afterward, Hassan was left lying on the roadway while the bus that hit him drove away, a relative said, while adding that it was a police patrol which found the helpless man and transported him to the hospital.
Hassan’s sister told Stabroek News that when family members arrived at the hospital, her bruised brother lay on a stretcher groaning in pain and no medical personnel was attending to him. After they made enquiries, he was attended to and they were told by the doctors that Hassan, who was unconscious, would have to undergo a surgery and he would also need a scan to determine the extent of the injuries sustained to his head.
The injured man regained consciousness the next day and the doctors informed that he had sustained two fractures to his left hand as well as two fractures to his left leg, injuries to his entire left side, which had affected the vision in his left eye, and a puncture to one of his internal organs, Hassan’s sister said.
The family is upset about the manner in which the investigation is being carried out. The man’s relatives noted that a former police officer was driving the minibus that caused the accident, while the bus is owned by a police officer and no charges have yet been made.
When the family visited the Vigilance Police Station the day after the accident, a relative said, the police told them Hassan was at fault in the accident. However, they expressed doubts over the claim, since they said that Hassan related that he was at the corner of the Good Hope Public Road attempting to cross when the speeding bus ploughed into him.
After the accident, relatives said, Hassan was in and out of consciousness and could not accurately recount the events that unfolded thereafter.
Concerns were also raised by the man’s relatives as to why a statement had not yet been taken from him. “Nobody never come to visit him or to check on his condition…they police just bring him and throw him in a stretcher and left him like a dead rat,” an upset relative said.
They say all that they are paying attention to at the moment is Hassan’s recovery, although the doctors have informed them that it is not likely that he would not be able to return to his job as a mason afterward.
