A taxi driver died yesterday morning after he lost control of the motorcar he was driving along the Windsor Forest Public Road, West Coast Demerara and two children were injured.
Dead is Kelvin Ghisiawan, 27, a former member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) who resided at Lot 110 East Samatta Point, Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
The injured children are ages, 12 and 6. The younger child was unconscious up to yesterday while the other is said to be in a stable condition.
The accident occurred around 4.14 am. Ghisiawan was driving motorcar, PSS 3117 which is owned by a Sophia resident. The children were in the back seat.
Family members told Stabroek News that at the time of the accident, Ghisiawan was returning to the East Bank of Demerara after dropping off his ex-partner and his three-year-old child to the Parika stelling.
They said that the woman works in the “backdam” and would usually take the child with her.
The two injured children are also the woman’s but from a previous relationship. The plan, they said was for Ghisiawan to drop the two children at their grandmother place’s in Kaneville.
According to the police, enquiries revealed that the motorcar was proceeding west along the northern side of the said public road, allegedly at a fast rate when Ghisiawan lost control of the vehicle causing it to swerve south.
As a result, Ghisiawan drove off the road and ran into a concrete bridge on the southern side of the road. The car was extensively damaged.
Ghisiawan and the children were picked up by public-spirited citizens and taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The children were admitted at the said hospital.
At the dead man’s home yesterday, family members including his mother and siblings had gathered as they tried to come to grips with his passing.
His weeping mother, Sharon Matthias related to Stabroek News that she received a call from Ghisiawan ex-partner around 5.45am yesterday who informed her that he had been involved in an accident and was taken to the hospital. “Duh is all they tell we…..Them ain’t tell me nothing else,” Matthias said.
As a result, she said she immediately woke up her other children and they travelled to the WDRH. When they arrived Ghisiawan had already been pronounced dead. “He did done dead. They did done put he in the mortuary,” she noted.
Matthias told this newspaper that she last spoke to her son on Wednesday. “Was his father birthday, we went in Diamond and then he bring me home and then he say he leaving and go work. I had no idea that he was taking her (ex-partner) back,” she recalled.
Ghisiawan’s partner, Surieh Sokwah said that after they returned home on Wednesday night, he asked her not to go home but wait for him to return.
The woman said she then enquired from Ghisiawan where he was heading when she learnt he had to drop his ex-partner to Parika. “He said he got to go 3 o’ clock to drop the girl and he daughter fah ketch boat fah go in back in the backdam,” Sokwah said.
She added that she told Ghisiawan to get some rest before he went but he refused. “He said he going and work lil bit on the road and then he will come back,” Sokwah said.
Meanwhile, his sister, Nikita Ghisiawan yesterday told Stabroek News that she believed he slept away on his way back home since he reportedly told his ex-partner that he wanted to sleep.
“He child mother said that he tell her that he want to sleep and she tell he park the car, you could sleep and then you will continue going. She seh she ain’t know if he sleep away on the wheel whilst he coming down or wah,” Nikita said.
Ghisiawan’s family said that he left the GDF some two years ago. From that point, he had been working as a taxi driver.
