A teenager is now dead after he lost control of the car he was driving along the Three Friends Public Road, Essequibo Coast and slammed into a lamp pole on Thursday night.
Chandi Dyal, called “Vikash,” 19, of “H” Lima, Essequibo Coast, sustained severe head and chest injuries, which resulted in significant internal bleeding. He was a market vendor.
According to a Guyana Police Force statement, the accident occurred around 9.25pm as Dyal was driving a car, PTT 5016, proceeding south along the Three Friends Public Road, Essequibo Coast, at a fast rate. However, he lost control of the vehicle and collided with the pole. He was rushed to the Suddie Hospital, where he died around midnight while receiving medical attention.
At the time of the accident, Dyal, the lone occupant of the car, was on his way to pick up the owner of the vehicle, who resides at Queenstown Village, Essequibo Coast.
“I don’t really know how come this happen, if he was on his phone or what. What I just heard is that he was travelling at a fast rate of speed,” his uncle, Randolph Singh, told Stabroek News yesterday.
At Dyal’s home yesterday, family members and neighbours were comforting his mother, Polly Singh.
The woman said that her son left home at around 9.15pm on Thursday night and was heading to Queenstown Village to pick up a neighbour.
“…Not too long after, a girl came and brought his phone, which she picked up from the accident scene and said that he had gotten into an accident. I asked her if it was serious and she said he was bleeding through his nose,” she related, before adding that family members immediately left for the hospital.
“Vikash wasn’t unconscious or anything and neither was any part of his body broken. We were told that he had injuries to his stomach and his head,” she added.
Prior to Dyal’s death, preparations were being made to have him transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. However, as his condition worsened, he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Suddie Hospital, where he succumbed.
A family member, who was at the hospital before Dyal succumbed, said that the teen was conscious and told them that he could not breathe but the doctors at the Suddie Public Hospital did not administer any oxygen to him.
“I strongly believe that Vickash died because of the negligence of the hospital. He was coughing and panting for breath yet oxygen was not given to him. We are no doctors but I think that if he was given oxygen, he would have lived since he had no external injuries and I’m sure that the post-mortem would reveal that he died as a result of punctured lungs. He lived for three hours and was conscious and talking and even asked for his mom,” the relative said. A post-mortem examination will be conducted next Tuesday.
It was noted that the teen’s father died under similar circumstances after a motorcycle accident some 20 years ago.
Dyal, who was his mother’s only child, had been assisting her with business.
On Monday, the Guyana Police Force reported that it has recorded an increase in road fatalities up to the end of July this year, compared to the same period last year. The police said there were 72 road fatalities at the end of July, which is 13 more than for the same period last year.
