Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Birthday celebration ends tragically
Just hours after holding a party to celebrate his birthday, 35-year-old Dirk Pollard died in a car crash, at around 04:30 hrs yesterday, near Eccles, on the East Bank Demerara public road.
Pollard, a mason of Middle Street, Poudroyen, West Bank Demerara, is believed to have fallen asleep at the wheel of his sister’s car, which toppled over several times after slamming into the eastern pavement and hitting a parked car belonging to Kenrick’s Auto Sales.
He died on the spot from severe head injuries.
His close friend, 57-year-old George Critchlow, also of Middle Street, Pouderoyen, was also in the vehicle, but he escaped with minor injuries.
The victim’s grief-stricken mother had to be hospitalized, after collapsing on learning of her son’s demise.
At the time of the mishap, Pollard was heading to the Stabroek Market to shop for his wife, Camille.
Critchlow, the survivor, told Kaieteur News that they had just reached Eccles when he suddenly heard Pollard shout ‘Oh sht’.
With that, his friend swerved to the opposite side of the road, where the car slammed into the eastern pavement before hitting a car that were on display outside of Kenrick’s Auto Sales.
An employee of Kenrick’s Auto Sales said that he had moved from that spot a mere five minutes before the crash.
“All I hear was ‘bradam-bradam’ and the car start topple over about three, four times,” Critchlow said.
“I was folded up in the vehicle and I hit part of my stomach.”
When the car came to a standstill, the passenger said, Critchlow managed to crawl through one of the windows.
However, he realized that Pollard was lying motionless in the car.
“I start touching him, thinking that he was unconscious. I touched his head, thinking that he had on a hat, but then I realized that his head had taken on a different shape.”
After realizing that his friend was dead, Critchlow telephoned the victim’s wife and informed her of the tragedy.
An ambulance eventually arrived and took the injured man to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he was treated and discharged.
A tearful Camille Pollard told Kaieteur News that her husband turned 35 last Tuesday.
However, he celebrated his birthday on Friday night, with a small party at his home, even hiring a “one-man band” for the celebration.
According to Mrs. Pollard, her husband took no alcohol, since he was assisting in the bar. The celebrations ended at around 04:00 hrs. Shortly after, Dirk, accompanied by his friend George Critchlow, left for the market to purchase ‘greens’ for Dirk’s wife.
“He was tired because he was up all night, but he said that he could make it,” Camille Pollard recalled.
Some 30 minutes later, Critchlow contacted her by phone with news of the tragedy. He told me that my husband had gotten into an accident and he didn’t think that he (the husband) could make it.
“I asked him if he could get my husband to the hospital and he said that he couldn’t, because my husband was pinned in the car.”
Mrs. Pollard believes that her husband, who is survived by three children, fell asleep at the wheel. However, she does not believe that he was speeding at the time, since he was a careful driver.
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