A 19-year-old man and an 18-year-old mother of one died yesterday after the vehicle they were in crashed into a utility pole on Homestretch Avenue shortly after midnight. They had just left a barbeque in South Ruimveldt.
The deceased are Dakera Gritten of Lot 2104 Nutmeg Street, Festival City, North Ruimveldt and Tonika Halley of Lot 1 Phase Two, East La Penitence Housing Scheme.
The other occupants who were involved in the accident are Delvern Luthers of Wortmanville, 22-year-old Joel Rose of D’Urban Street, Troy Glen of Laing Avenue and the driver of the car PVV 1289, 19-year-old Rayon Alves who is currently in police custody.
According to a police report, enquiries revealed that at about 12.30 am the car was proceeding on Homestretch Avenue at a fast rate when Alves lost control of it and collided with a utility pole. The car toppled several times before coming to a stop in a nearby trench.
At the home of Gritten, Dakera’s mother was too distraught to speak. His sister Detica Gritten told this newspaper that she saw her brother four minutes before 10 pm during which time she was getting ready for bed.
“He came to my room and he was like ‘Tica I would like to see your face’. I ask him why he wanted to see my face for and he said he wanted to ask me something. He was trying fighting to plug in my bedroom light and when he do get it on, he come till by my bedside and he ask me how he look, if he look nice. Ah seh ‘yeah man, you look good’. Then he left the bedroom and forget to plug out the light and I call him back and tell him, he left the light on. He said ‘Oh shoots, ah forget’ and that was it. The car was full and I don’t know but Dakera just force himself to sit in the backseat”, recounted Detica.
The young woman said she had no idea where her brother was headed and only knows that he was picked up by Alves, a friend he once went to school with. Following the accident, she learnt from relatives that Dakera had left to attend a barbeque.
Detica recalled that the family received the dreaded call about nineteen minutes after one yesterday morning. Her mother was the one who answered the phone and Detica recalls her screaming and repeating “no, no” in disbelief at learning of Dakera’s demise.
The young woman said that when they arrived on the scene of the accident, everyone else had been escorted to the hospital except for Dakera who was already dead. She noted that an eyewitness told her that the three other occupants in the backseat were unconscious so when the paramedics arrived they responded to the other injured occupants from the backseat first as Dakera’s condition was ruled stable during that time as only his hand was visibly injured.
“She (the eyewitness) said they told him to lie down on the ground by the time they look after the other three. When they looked over to him, he was bleeding through his nose, his mouth and his ears. Then they rush over to him, clean him up and put him in the ambulance. She said they tried to give him oxygen, all these things but was too late. It was a friends’ outing. All of them went to school together”, said the sister of the deceased.
Dakera, she noted was a labourer who worked at Toolsie Persaud Ltd and had only been employed three months now. “He was planning to fly out and take a vacation this year. He was super excited”, she said of his plans he had for himself.
Meanwhile, Halley, the other fatality succumbed to her injuries about six hours later while receiving medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). Tonika left home about minutes to ten and was picked up by a cousin and friends in a car.
“She seh the barbeque was supposed to finish by 11pm and they did just going and patronize the person who got the barbeque”, Clarene Springer, grandmother of Tonika said. Sometime after 1 am, the mother of the now dead woman received a call informing of the accident. Springer said no one told her of the incident right away. She remembers having a dream which woke her up and she decided to go downstairs and couldn’t find her daughter and was afterwards informed of her whereabouts. Around 5 am yesterday, the family received another call in-forming them that Tonika’s condition had worsened.
“She was unconscious. I tell her `Tonika get up and tell me something. Seh something to granny, look granny come to see you’… Then she start throwing up blood and I seh this isn’t nice… I keep praying for her, I left everything in God hands”, Springer shared. She said that she was right there when the teen took her last breath sometime after six yesterday morning.
Halley is survived by a one-year-old daughter.
This newspaper also spoke with the mother of one of the injured occupants currently hospitalized, Joel Rose. He was one of the four who was in the backseat of the car. Rose, she said, suffered injuries to his head and foot. He is said to be conscious. The other two injured passengers are currently hospitalized at the GPH.
The bodies of the deceased are currently at Lyken Funeral Parlour awaiting autopsies.
The car has since been examined and is currently lodged at the police station. A Breathalyzer test was done on Alves but no trace of alcohol was found.
