The family members of an 82-year-old woman who was struck down by a canter are trying to come to grips with the loss of their loved one.
Keturah Dalgetty, of 215 Samatta Point, Grove died in a vehicular accident on Tuesday night at Diamond, East Bank Demerara and relatives are trying to piece together what happened. Her daughter Michelle Dalgetty said that she learnt of her mother’s demise on Wednesday mid-morning from the police while she was at work. She said the police told her that the accident occurred around 6 pm on Tuesday, somewhere in Diamond. What the police told them from their initial investigations was that Dalgetty was struck down by a canter that was reversing. After the driver of the canter realized that he had hit something, he came out and checked and that was when he found the woman unconscious near his truck.
According to Michelle, the police told her that the driver and his brother-in-law rushed her mother to the Diamond Hospital, where she subsequently succumbed to her injuries. She said that she identified her mother’s body at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour.
Michelle said that on the night her mother died, she had left her residence to go to her granddaughter’s home in Diamond, which is not too far from Samatta Point. She said that when she called the Diamond residence for her mother, her niece told her that they hadn’t seen her and so they began to call around for her. According to Michelle they tried not to panic since an incident occurred a while back where she left for Berbice to stay at another relative’s place without informing them. “The last time we made police reports and placed her picture in the papers and she was in Berbice”, Michelle told Stabroek News.
The driver responsible for the death of her mother, Michelle said, is in custody. She said that efforts were made by the driver’s family to compensate them for their loss but she says that she would leave the accident in the hands of the law. “Let the police deal with it, justice has to prevail because watch what he do with mommy”, Michelle told Stabroek News.
Dalgetty leaves to mourn ten children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was described by her daughter as a very vibrant and active grandmother. “I feel my mother would have lived to see more than 100 years, if it weren’t for that accident”, an emotional Michelle told Stabroek News. A post mortem is to be conducted on Dalgetty today.
According to acting Traffic Chief Boodnarine Persaud, investigations into the accident and death of Dalgetty are ongoing and the police have the driver in custody.
