A UK-based Guyanese woman is now dead, while her daughter is hospitalised after the taxi that was transporting them to the airport for their trip home crashed into a parked truck at Mahaica yesterday morning.
Bibi O’Donovan, 58, who was a British Citizen, is believed to have died at the scene of the accident, which occurred around 5.15 am at the Chelsea Public Road, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara.
Her daughter, Shaneeza Lewis, 23, who is also a British Citizen, is now a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
A police statement on the accident said that O’Donovan and Lewis were travelling in a taxi, bearing licence plate HC 6753, when the accident occurred. Police said the driver, who is now in custody, was going at a fast rate when he lost control and crashed into the back of a parked truck.
O’Donovan was subsequently rushed to the Mahaicony Public Hospital, where she was pronounced dead while her daughter was referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital in an unconscious state.
“We don’t know exactly is what happen on the road. We just know that they [O’Donovan and Lewis] left around four in the morning to go to the airport and then couple hours after we get a call that they went in an accident and Bibi dead,” one of O’Donovan’s relatives told Stabroek News yesterday.
She pointed out that the woman had returned to the country some six weeks ago with her daughter to do some repairs to their Lot 15 Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice home. They were destined to check in at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at 6 am.
“We know the driver ’cause he does drive taxi around here and he is known for driving hard and we ain’t know if he was tired or anything,” the relative explained.
Stabroek News was told that while the car was travelling at a fast pace along the road, it seemed as if the driver fell asleep and the vehicle subsequently swerved and went head on into the parked truck.
“All I remember is hearing this car coming fast, fast down the track early in the morning and then when I turn out I see the thing swerve outta nowhere and ram into the truck,” an eyewitness recounted.
“The whole car top was smash in and the people get trap. Is a bunch of people nearby had to run out and try and pull them out but we couldn’t help the woman [O’Donovan] ’cause like she de dead already,” the witness added.
