Survivors of the horrific vehicular crash, which occurred on Friday morning along the New Hope, East Bank Demerara (EBD) public road and left one person dead, yesterday recalled that the driver of the pick-up was swerving on the road before he collided with the Route 42 (Georgetown-Timehri) minibus.
Several passengers from the minibus remain hospitalised, nursing various injuries including broken bones and lacerations.
The early morning crash claimed the life of the minibus driver Oswald Roberts, known as ‘04’, 59, of Lot 489 Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden Highway. The accident occurred at around 6:45 am on Friday.
Some of the victims of the accident, from their hospital bed, yesterday recounted the events leading up to the accident.
Liloutie Deolall, 42, of Lot 5 Kuru Kururu told Stabroek News that she was sitting in the front passenger seat of the bus at the time of the collision. The woman, who is an employee of Prittipaul Singh Investment, said she was on her way to work.
“Well, we in the bus going. This pick-up come and overtake another vehicle and swerve into the bus. We saw the pick-up swerving on the road before it crash into the bus. After the crash, I lef in my seat. I couldn’t have move and I was the last person to come out of the bus,” Deolall recounted. She recalled that first responders and public-spirited citizens had to remove the door to free her.
After being rescued, the woman said she was rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre for medical attention like the other injured persons. Deolall suffered a broken left foot with lacerations to both feet.
Another crash victim, 32-year-old Candacie Vickerie, of Lot 13 Kuru Kururu, who is a nurse in training, yesterday related that she too observed the pick-up swerving on the road.
“I saw this Tundra swaying on the road from one side to the other. I don’t know if he lost control of the vehicle or whatever but he was swaying all over the road. The bus I was in was trying to stay away from him but he kept coming into our lane before the collision,” she recounted.
Vickerie explained that subsequent to the collision, she lost consciousness for a short while and upon regaining consciousness, she heard persons screaming in the bus.
The woman, who broke both of her wrists, said she was sitting in the passenger seat behind the driver. “I noticed people started screaming and when I look up, the driver was lying there…I don’t know if he had died already…eventually people came out and really help us and tried their best to get us out of the bus,” the nursing student related.
Apart from the broken wrists, she suffered a broken left foot. Doctors have already performed a corrective surgery to the foot and installed a piece of steel.
Surrounded by her family members, 29-year-old Murissa McPherson of Lot 355 Kuru Kururu, said she was travelling with her fiancé, John Cheddie, 28. The couple was on their way to work.
“…All of a sudden, this Tundra guy swerve from his path and into our lane and we couldn’t have done anything else. If the driver would have swerved in a next direction, he woulda hit another bus and cause a bigger accident. But because he [the pick-up driver] swerve so sudden, they collided,” she recalled.
Following the impact, McPherson said, the bus seat fell on her along with four others.
“It had a lot of people around and they try getting us out of the bus. A car was passing and asked my fiancé if we wanted a drop to Diamond [Diagnostic Centre] and we said yea and we went straight to the hospital,” she said.
Cheddie, Stabroek News was told, sustained minor cuts and bruises and was treated and sent away.
McPherson, on the other hand, is nursing a fractured and dislocated left hip. She is expected to undergo a second surgery where doctors will work to shift her hip bone from the nerve to allow her to move.
“The bone is resting on the nerve and I cannot do much foot movement. They have to move the bone in the next surgery. In the first surgery, they put in a piece of steel to help fix back my hip,” she added.
The police, in a statement following the crash, said that the pick-up was proceeding south along the eastern carriageway of the public road at a fast rate of speed, when the driver lost control of the vehicle.
As a result, he swerved from east to west across the road and into the path of Roberts’ minibus, BWW 2940, which was proceeding north along the western side of the road at the time. The two vehicles sustained extensive damage as a result of the head-on collision.
The pick-up’s driver and his passenger both discharged themselves from the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and went to a private medical facility, where they were admitted. The driver is said to have suffered abdominal trauma while his passenger suffered a fractured right arm.
The other injured persons in the accident were identified as 48-year-old Andre King, of Lot 156 Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden Highway; 22-year-old Dave Taylor, of Laluni Creek, Soesdyke; 23-year-old Sheena Chin and 24-year-old Gina Chin, who are sisters of Lot X Kuru Kururu; 35-year-old Tatema Murray, of Lot 273 Kuru Kururu; and 30-year-old Cherryan Millington and 69-year-old Glixman Adams, both of Lot 150 Kuru Kururu.
