A mere two weeks after two friends lost their lives when they crashed into the median at Bagotstown before running into a resident’s fence, another car crashed into the same resident’s fence and that of his neighbour in the wee hours of yesterday. No one was hurt.
According to Senior Superintendent Kurleigh Simon, the driver of the car was under the influence of alcohol and will be charged with DUI. The man, he said, was taken into police custody at the Providence Police Station before being released on self-bail. The driver told police that he was the only occupant of the car but eyewitnesses are claiming otherwise.
One resident told his newspaper that he estimates that about five persons were in the vehicle at the time of the incident while two others claim that they saw three females along with the driver emerge from the car after the accident.
At the home of Faizul Razack, the concrete fence was badly damaged where the car had gone through. A mangled gate that was used to block off the area where he did auto repairs lay on the opposite side of the damaged fence. He also pointed out the destruction to his shed which was separated from the posts in several places and other parts of the shed where it was splintered as a result of yesterday’s incident.
Recounting the moment of the accident, Razack said, “I wasn’t sleeping. I was just lying down, the place was hot. All [I] hear like two vehicle coming like them racing. I hear one fly past and I hear the other one clear out the next door neighbour fence and come straight here. Probably when they hook the turn, I don’t know if them can’t control themselves. Since this happen to me so many time in the past, when I hear the way they coming around the turn, I’m already worried that is straight here they coming.”
Speaking of the turn which is situated at the junction of Bagotstown and Eccles, Superintendent Simon disclosed that he spoke with an officer about measures to be put in place to prevent future accidents. One of the things that can be done he had voiced, was installing a signboard that says ‘Slow down’ just before the Bagotstown/Eccles junction for drivers approaching from Georgetown. Another idea was for speed bumps to be installed in the run-up to the junction similar to the ones that can be found on the West Coast Demerara/East Bank Essequibo Highway when heading to Parika. The superintendent said that he intends to discuss the issue with Traffic Chief, Linden Isles.
Two friends died and another was critically injured when the most recent accident in this vicinity occurred on the night of April 19. The car they were in crashed into the median and careened into Razack’s fence. After numerous accidents here over the years, including one where a car crashed through his fence into the top half of his house back in 2011, Razack took the initiative to construct an even bigger and more durable post which the men crashed into. The post still bore marks from last month’s accident but was not as badly damaged. In this accident the car had collided with a utility pole before hitting the post. The damaged utility pole has since been replaced by GPL.
This is the seventh time the homeowner said that a vehicle has crashed through his fence. In 2011 when the car went into the top flat of his house, Razack said that the driver of the car then had helped with some of the repairs to his house but didn’t finish it, forcing him to complete it on his own. Almost every time he was the one burdened with repairs whenever this happened adding that he relied on the promises made by these drivers that they would assist but nothing much ever came of these promises. However, the driver in yesterday’s incident he said, has promised to do repairs this coming Saturday. Not wanting to take this lightly like previous times, the man intends on making a police report today noting that whether it is insurance or not that takes care of the damage, he cannot be the one to always be facing the brunt of expenses and work every time a driver chooses to be negligent. “I had asked in the past after another one of these accidents for a speed bump to be put at the turn there but nothing was done,” Razack lamented.
Tenants, Melissa Jordan and Edward Johnson occupy the house nearby where the fence was damaged as a result of the accident yesterday morning. Jordan who moved here in July of last year said. “The driver said he coming to fix the fence on Saturday. The last time this happen, the landlady was the one who had to fix the fence,” Jordan recalled.
Meanwhile, Johnson shared that he has been living in the building for a number of years, and almost every time a vehicle crashed into Razack’s fence, the fence where he lives was also knocked out or damaged, adding that the last two incidents were in February of this year and June of last year. Yesterday morning’s occurrence also saw damage being done to the water main preventing them from getting water, but the driver of the car, he said, came and saw to it that it was fixed. Johnson pleaded for a speed bump or other measures to be put in place to prevent future occurrences.
Investigations are ongoing.
