Presidential Guard Travis Fullington, one of two survivors from the horrendous October 15th Friendship, East Bank Demerara crash, has been discharged from the hospital, Traffic Chief Linden Isles confirmed yesterday.
Isles told Stabroek News that Fullington was discharged during the course of the week and is at home recuperating. However, he said, investigators are still to receive a detailed statement from him and the investigation remains incomplete.
On October 15th, a police car and another car collided head-on, resulting in the deaths of five persons including Fullington’s colleague Ronnel Barker, 24, also a Presidential Guard, who was driving a Guyana Police Force vehicle. The other deceased persons have been identified as Leon Tucker, 34, of 2544 Recht-Door-Zee, West Bank Demerara, a father of two and a member of the Guyana Defence Force, 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, who were employees of the Diamond Diagnostic Centre.
The other survivor, Tricia Lindon, a resident of Friendship, had told Stabroek News that Tucker had slowed 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 the police vehicle crashed into their 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.
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.
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 vehicle.
The woman said that she was hospitalised for at least two days following the crash. She suffered no major injuries and was kept at the hospital for observation.
Police, in a statement on the night of the crash, said that Constable 22621 Barker 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.
President David Granger had ordered that a commission of inquiry be done to determine the factors that contributed to the crash.
