The police are investigating an accident on the Coldingen Public Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on Friday at about 5:30 pm which claimed the life of a pregnant woman and left her sister critically injured.
The dead woman has been identified as 17-year-old Bibi Mohammed, of 36 Marshon, Annandale, ECD. Her sister, 16-year-old Maria Mohammed of Lot 366 Non-Pareil, Railway Embankment, ECD, is in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). The two were riding an electric bike when it was involved in an accident.
Bibi was six months pregnant at the time.
The dead’s woman mother, Ruqayyah Mohammed, told the Sunday Stabroek that Maria was towing her pregnant sister at the back of the electric bike, when a lorry struck them from behind throwing them off the bike. Ruqayyah related that Maria said she was riding the electric bike at a slow speed in the corner of the road.
According to the mother, the truck ran over Bibi’s foot as she lay on the road, subsequently severing her leg. Maria sustained a serious puncture wound.
Ruqayyah noted that Bibi was alive when she was placed into the ambulance, however she later succumbed at GPH. Maria is currently being treated for her injuries at the GPH.
The emotional mother said she attempted to speak to the driver to find out what happened as he offered no assistance to her daughters while they were injured. It was left to public-spirited persons to help place them in the ambulance.
She said the driver told her that “he parked and me daughters run into him,” which she thought to be untrue, because if her daughter had run into him, as he claimed, the front of the electric bike would have struck the truck.”
She also related that she overheard him telling the police, “When he ran over the thing he stopped,” however, she hastened to pointed out, “that’s when he ran over my baby foot
According to a police report, enquiries disclosed that the motor lorry, GRR 3130, was proceeding north along the western side of the Coldingen Public Road when the driver alleged that he approached the main road, stopped and observed the traffic before going onto the access road.
The police related that the driver, Rickford Beckles, 67, of Annandale, ECD, said that when he drove off, he felt his lorry “bump up.” As a result he came out of the lorry to investigate and saw two girls lying on the road next to an electric bicycle.
The driver is presently in custody assisting with the ongoing investigation. (Subhana Shiwmangal)
