Ten persons were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, yesterday, having sustained various injuries when a truck slammed into the back of a minibus before crashing into another bus coming in the opposition, and then colliding with a parked car on the Bachelor’s Adventure Public Road, East Coast Demerara.
Parmanand Dass and his wife Lalowtie are being assisted from the ambulance by hospital attendants.
The injured were all passengers in the two minibuses.
They are Mignon James, 71, of Nabaclis; Chrisana Thompson, 18, of Two Friends
Village; Denise Fraser, 31, of Bachelor’s Adventure; Eden Innis, 6, and his
sister Ena, 8, also of Bachelor’s Adventure; Murna Bacchus, 63, and Paulette
Woolford, 44, both of Golden Grove; Annanso Nedd, 26; and Lalowtie Dass and
her husband Parmanand Dass, 47, of Good Hope.
Parmanand and Lalowtie Dass who were listed as critical, were in the bus that
was coming in the opposition and suffered the brunt of a head on collision
with the truck.
All the other injured persons were passengers in the bus that was hit by the
truck from behind.
And while rescuers were trying to help the injured and those trapped inside
the bus that had been knocked over, four young men who had been attending a
church service nearby, rushed out and pounced on the grocery that was in one
of the minibuses. They were encouraged by a church sister, who also ran out,
and who said that “things brown” and their prayers were answered.
But some other church members called on them to exercise mercy even as they
helped the injured.
According to eyewitnesses, the bus was proceeding in an easterly direction and
had slowed down to put off a passenger, when the truck slammed into it,
knocking it over on its side.
The truck then slammed into another bus driven by Parmanand Dass, before
crashing into the car that was parked outside a church.
One eyewitness, Clint Hamilton, who was driving behind the truck, said that
the truck driver who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, was
driving erratically along the East Coast Demerara Public Road.
Hamilton said that on several occasions he attempted to overtake the truck but
thought better of that idea.
According to Hamilton, the bus had stopped and the truck driver in his attempt
to overtake, crashed into the back right side.
Dass, who was coming in the opposite direction, could do nothing to avoid the
head on collision.
Hamilton said that the truck was going so fast that it ended up hitting the
parked car.
“The truck driver was totally wrong,” Hamilton told this newspaper.
According to one of the passengers, 71-year-old Mignon James, she had just
joined the bus to head home when the accident occurred.
She said that all she could remember was hearing a loud crashing sound and
being squeezed by several persons who were on top of her.
The elderly woman who sustained a deep cut on the right side of her face, lost
her spectacles as a result of the accident.
Another passenger, who was taking care of the two children, Eden and Ena
Inniss, said that after the bus toppled she too found herself under several
persons.
She told this newspaper that she desperately tried to secure the two children,
but with several persons covering them, the task was difficult at first.
Eventually, all the passengers were taken out and placed into an ambulance
operated by the Region Four Democratic Council and rushed to the hospital.
Their arrival created pandemonium at the Accident and Emergency Unit where
several persons flocked the entrance for a glimpse of the injured. At times
they hampered the work of the hospital attendants.
The driver of the truck has told police that the bus that had stopped to put
off a passenger, suddenly put on his signal and pulled off as he was about to
overtake.
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He said that there was nothing he could have done to avoid the collision.
Eyewitnesses also said that several persons who rushed to the scene, helped
themselves to personal items that were left in the bus by the victims.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
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