Four people are dead following a horrific vehicular crash yesterday morning on the public road at Greenwich Park, East Bank Essequibo.
The crash, which involved a minibus and a lorry, claimed the lives of Vernon Prowell, 50, of Bent Street, Wortmanville; Margaret Kennedy, 72, of Tuschen; Olga Reddy, 57, of Parika; and Elvis Charles, 40, of Ruby, East Bank Essequibo.
According to reports, the injured were taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, where they were examined by Dr Outar. Kennedy, Reddy, and Charles died there while receiving treatment. Four people were admitted and two others sent on to the West Demerara Regional Hospital for further treatment.
Prowell, who was driving the minibus BWW 8364, succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, after being transferred there from the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The driver of the lorry, GZZ 2285, was Ewart Stewart, 38, of Stewartville, West Coast Demerara.
Among the others injured were Stella Parhoo, a 73, of Parika; Severn Austin, 44, of Den Amstel; Shemar Alleyne, 21, of Tuschen; Selmont Brisport, 64, of Tuschen; Samuel Ramdas, 46, of Ruby Backdam; and Junior Jack, 25, of Tuschen.
The police said enquiries disclosed that the lorry was proceeding east along the northern side of the Greenwich Park public road at a fast speed approaching a pedestrian crossing, while the minibus was headed in the opposite direction.
The police said the lorry driver claimed that a black car with licence number, HD 1708, which was proceeding in the same direction ahead of him made a sudden stop at the pedestrian crossing. The lorry driver said he applied brakes and swerved right to avoid hitting the car and in doing so, collided with the right front of the minibus.
The owner of the truck, who is a building contractor, said he received a call from his driver that he had been involved in an accident. He said he asked the driver, “how serious and he responded, ‘people got injured,’ and I asked him what did you do and he said he called 911….” The contractor said he told the driver to handle the situation because he did not want to go to the scene. The contractor confirmed that the driver was in police custody.
The impact from the crash also reportedly caused an electrical pole to fall on a house causing visible damage to a section in the front and rendering it temporarily unlivable. The house is said to belong to ‘Aunty Rani,’ a school vendor and it was occupied by her son, Ivor, an excavator operator, and others.
A source who was at the Greenwich Park Primary School, opposite where the accident occurred, recalled that around 9:40 am, she heard a loud swishing sound, and looked out and saw the truck trying to overtake another vehicle and colliding with the bus. She also saw when the pole fell on the house.
She said the bell had already rung for the school’s session to start when the crash occurred and teachers and students were terrified but school continued as normal until 3 pm.
Another eyewitness said the bus was badly mangled and it “took about half an hour” to retrieve the injured. Describing the horrific scene, she said people were screaming and blood was everywhere. She was thankful that no student was on the road at the time.
Later in the evening, the house that the pole fell on was closed and no one was there. By then though, a crew from the Guyana Power and Light had already replaced the pole and restored power to the area.
