A 12-year-old girl and a mother of one are among the four persons who died last night after a minibus crashed into a car along the Nismes Public Road, on the West Bank of Demerara.
Dead are Maria Bisnauth, 12, Ayesha Sealey, 27, of Patentia Housing Scheme, Paul Glen, 52, who was the driver of the car, and a woman who was yet to be identified up to press time. At least 20 persons were involved in the accident.
Bisnauth’s mother, Shevanie Mangal, was also involved in the accident and is said to be in a critical condition. She was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) along with 19-year-old Christopher Shamar, a resident of Stanleytown. He was a passenger of the minibus. Three others were also transported to the GPHC while others remained at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH).
The accident, which brought the death toll from accidents over the previous week to 12, occurred around 8 pm near a gas station along the Nismes Public Road, from where Glen had exited.
According to the Commander of Region Three Simon McBean, based on what investigators had gathered, Glen drove out of the gas station and stopped in the middle of the road, where the Route 31 (Georgetown to Wales) minibus crashed into his vehicle.
Witnesses related similar accounts to this newspaper. One said, “The car was coming out from the gas station and the bus just crash up into it.”
McBean noted that investigations are still ongoing but confirmed that four persons had died as a result of the accident.
The scene was chaotic at the WDRH last night in the aftermath of the accident as some of the injured victims were being admitted to the facility. Relatives of some of the victims related that they were passing by the scene when they recognised family members, who they then transported to the hospital.
“I been going home and I see my brother on the road and I went home, got in a car and brought him here,” a woman, who did not want to be named, said.
Others said that were at the hospital because they did not know if their relatives were some of the victims. As the victims and dead bodies arrived, relatives began crying loudly, while some silently shed tears.
When Sealey’s body was brought to the WDRH, her relatives fainted and could not stop crying. They told Stabroek News that she had a 13-year-old son and was employed by an elderly woman as a caretaker. She was described as a kind and generous woman.
The driver of the bus, Hensley Allen, was among other persons who have been admitted to the WDRH. Others were identified as Mark Anthony, 22, of Canal Number One; Mark Ambrose; Paul Noel; Keisha Washington, 32; Lawshana Alicia Anthony, 19; Avin Nirjan, 32; Leon Marks, 26; and Salame Marks, 27. They were said to be from either Canal Number One or Patentia Housing Scheme, on the West Bank.
Prior to yesterday’s accident, seven men and a child were killed in other road accidents between Sunday and yesterday.
There was Matthew Headly, who died last Sunday morning after being involved in an accident on the Railway Embankment Road at Felicity, East Coast Demerara; police constable Carl Roach, who died during the week hour of Monday morning after he collided with a car while riding a motorcycle at the intersection of Brickdam and Chalmers Place; Raymond Cassell, 52, a suspected victim of a hit and run accident, who was discovered on the Coffee Grove Public Road, Essequibo Coast; Dillon De Ramos, the owner of the popular Kosmos Bar located in MovieTowne, and his friend, Senior Superintendent Brian Eastman, who died after the vehicle they were travelling in skidded off the road and slammed into the fence of Yokohama Trading at Liliendaal; seven-year-old Nirfan Nezamdeen, a student of Lachmansingh Primary School, who was killed in an accident along the West Coast Berbice Public Road where a car plowed into him and others; Beshnam Ramnarine, of Devonshire Castle, Essequibo Coast, who collided with a minibus while riding his motorcycle along the Windsor Castle Public Road on Friday afternoon; and Riley Newton, whose vehicle toppled after he reportedly fell asleep at the wheel along the Leonora Public Road early yesterday morning.
