A nine-year-old West Bank Demerara boy is now hospitalised after he was struck down by a car along the Canal Number One Access Road on Monday afternoon.
The child is Joshua Bascom, of Lot 21 Inner Bagotville, West Bank Demerara. The driver of the car, a 38-year-old man of La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara, is currently in police custody.
According to a Guyana Police Force press release, enquiries revealed that at about 4pm on Monday, the car was proceeding east along the northern side of the road at a fast rate when the child, who was standing on the northern side of the road, was struck down.
The driver alleges that as he was passing the child, the boy stepped forward and the front of a fender of the car and wing mirror hit him. Due to the impact, he was thrown a short distance away.
The release further states that the driver stopped and picked up the boy, who was conscious, and took him to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, which referred him to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he was admitted as a patient. His condition is listed as stable.
Breathalyzer tests were conducted on the driver but no alcohol was found on his breath.
When Stabroek News visited the child’s residence yesterday, the boy’s mother, Karimala Simon, was preparing to visit her son. She noted that following the accident on Monday, Bascom was in and out of consciousness but by yesterday he had seemed to be recovering.
“I was at home at the time of the accident. My nephew-in-law come running telling me that my son just get knock down on the road. He get knock down in the [vicinity] of the Tropical Paradise Resort. By the time I reach out on the road, the driver of the car that knock he down already carry he to the hospital. His left arm break and the bone slip through the arm. His face and chin and so bruise up and he crying out for pain to his neck,” said Simon.
Doctors, she related, had looked for any injuries to her son’s neck but nothing was seen. At the time, Simon spoke with this newspaper, no test was done on the child’s neck. An x-ray, she said, was done of his injured arm and a metal plate was subsequently inserted.
Simon said she has since talked with the boy about crossing the road at the time of the accident but the child said he did not cross the road and could not remember being struck down. The woman also showed this newspaper the shop where she had sent the child to purchase an item for her just before the accident. The shop is situated on the southern side of the road as is the family’s home. As a result, the woman said her son had no reason to cross the road. However, she noted that the driver claims that just before he hit the child, Bascom had bent down to pick up something from the mud on the opposite side of the road. The canal was recently dug, which led to the mud being dumped on the northern side of the road along the parapet. The woman said, too, that she doesn’t believe her son even reached the shop as the money she sent him with was found in his pocket.
