Tricia Lindon, one of the two survivors of the Friendship, East Bank Demerara (EDB) accident that left five dead on Tuesday, says Leon Tucker, who was the driver of the vehicle she was travelling in at the time, had slowed down to allow the police car that eventually crashed into them to pass.
“Well, wa is this, this morning?” Lindon, a mother of five, recalled Tucker saying seconds before their vehicle collided head on with a police vehicle. “When he said that I look up and same time something knock we car and the car spin around and stopped on the grass,” she recounted, while adding that Tucker had slowed down.
Although still in shock from the collision, Lindon, who had been hospitalised, was released on Thursday and she spoke with Stabroek News yesterday at her home in Friendship, EBD.
The other survivor of the accident, Presidential Guard Travis Fullington, who was a passenger in the police vehicle, remains hospitalised.
The accident occurred around 5.36 am on Tuesday when the speeding police car collided head on with Tucker’s vehicle, resulting in the deaths of Ronnel Barker, 24, a Presidential Guard who was driving a Guyana Police Force (GPF) vehicle; Tucker, 34, of 2544 Recht-Door-Zee, West Bank Demerara, a father of two and a member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), who was driving the other vehicle; Tucker’s aunt, Lovern Stoby, 66, of Third Street, Friendship, who was a traffic officer at the John Fernandes Wharf; and Denise King Josiah, 57, a cleaner, and Hubert Josiah, 58, a porter, both of 105, Second Street Friendship and employees of the Diamond Diagnostic Centre.
Police in a statement on Tuesday night said that Constable 22621 Barker, of the Presidential Guard, was on duty driving force vehicle PTT 9313 along the roadway when his vehicle collided with motor vehicle PPP 515, which was proceeding in the opposite direction. Lindon along with the three others were passengers of PPP 515.
Lindon, Stoby and the Josiahs were picked up by Tucker, who is the nephew of Stoby and were being given a lift. The woman told Stabroek News that every morning she and the others would get transportation together.
On Tuesday morning, Lindon said, Stoby was at the head of the street when Tucker was passing and he stopped upon seeing her. “She was the last person to come out on the road and when she was at the head, he passed to pick her up and she called the two other people first and then call me because we does always go to work together,” she explained.
According to Lindon, she cannot recall if the sirens of the police vehicle were blaring at the time of the collision but residents on the day of the accident had said that the sirens were being used.
Lindon, an electronics and phone accessories vendor, stated that the accident occurred within seconds and after the car stopped on the parapet of the road, she realised that she was the only person who exited the car.
“I was sitting behind the front passenger seat and after be we get knock and the car spin around and stop I came out – I didn’t see what hit us and only know it was a police vehicle and that it went in the trench when I reach at the hospital. But after I come out I didn’t see nobody else coming out and I think they can’t move but when we reach at the hospital that is when I hear they dead,” she recounted.
Although she is not seriously injured, the mother of five noted that she needs to be assisted to move around the home. Her husband, she explained, has been doing most of the chores at their home since the accident.
She said she has been experiencing severe pains to the left hip and has not been able to fully move her right foot. She said that X-rays of her foot and hip done at the Georgetown Public Hospital shows that nothing is wrong with her but she is felling severe pains. Doctors, she said, have explained that the discomfort is because impact of the accident.
“I keep telling them that it is hurting really bad and that I can’t move my right foot. Unto last night (Thursday) I told some people from Ministry of Public Health, who came to visit me, what I am feeling and they promised to call me back and follow up but they haven’t,” she stated.
Police Commander of Region 4 (B) Kurleigh Simon could not provide much details on the status of the investigation as he noted that a Commission of Inquiry (CoI), ordered by President David Granger, is underway.
On Wednesday, the President, accompanied by Chief of Staff of the GDF Brigadier Patrick West and Deputy Commissioner of Police Nigel Hoppie, visited the families of the deceased.
A statement from the Ministry of Presidency (MoTP) noted that Granger, while expressing condolences to the family, said that the accident ought not to have happened.
“The road was clear. The road was perfectly clear, and I couldn’t imagine that such a horrific accident would occur; not a bruise or a graze but a head on collision. It is something that is completely unbelievable that on such a plain road, plain daylight, no animals on the road, no obstacles that we could have such a horrific accident,” the Head of State said.
“I have come here on behalf of the Government to say how sorry we are for what has happened. I speak on behalf of the Guyana Police Force and Chief of Staff of the GDF… [and] on my own behalf. You have our sadness from all levels,” the president added.
The heads of the GDF and GPF pledged to offer support to the families of Tucker, Stoby and Barker during their time of grief.
Surveillance footage of the accident that was posted on Facebook showed that the police vehicle was moving at a fast rate, with its lights flashing at the time. Tucker was proceeding along the opposite lane. The footage showed that just before the collision, upon approaching the police vehicle, Tucker applied brakes and slowed down in his lane. However, the two vehicles collided and both vehicles spun around before coming to a halt some distance away from the point of impact. The police car landed in a nearby trench.
After hearing the collision, many residents rushed to the scene. One who assisted in freeing the victims from the vehicle Tucker was driving said that they had to use a saw to cut the vehicle to get the victims out of the car. “The driver died on the spot and his foot was pinned down inside the vehicle. We had to wait for the fire service to come and lift up parts of the car before he could have gotten freed,” the man said.
The president on the day of the accident ordered that a CoI be conducted to determine what the cause of the accident was. While travelling from his private residence along the East Bank of Demerara, he stopped at the scene and observed what had transpired.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency on Tuesday, Granger said the “shocking event will be thoroughly investigated,” and noted that within two hours after the accident, he had directed Hoppie to launch an inquiry headed by a person no lower in rank than Deputy Commissioner “to determine how such an accident could have occurred and also to make recommendations to prevent a recurrence.”
“We will ensure that, if there was any error, any mistake, any wrongdoing… that there will be no further event like this in the history of the Police Force or the Guyana Defence Force,” he was quoted as saying.
He further said steps will also be taken to ensure that regulations, Standard Operating Procedures, inspections and the careful selection and training of drivers are measures which are put in place so as to prevent a recurrence. “The Government and the security forces will ensure that the findings and recommendations of this Commission of Inquiry are fully and rigorously implemented,” he added.
