Woman killed, GDF ranks injured in Linden accident

May 23, 2009 News

An early morning accident in Amelia’s Ward, Linden, yesterday, left one woman dead, and four army ranks injured.

Dead: Enid Sharpe

Reports are that 38-year-old Enid Sharpe (the police identified her as Enid Campbell) died on the spot after she was struck from behind by a Guyana Defence Force-registered vehicle, DFB 1469. At the time the woman was riding her motorcycle, CE 3406.
The accident occurred around 07:45 hours at Lover’s Lane, Amelia’s Ward, not far from the woman’s home.
According to a police statement, investigations revealed that a GDF vehicle and the motorcyclist were proceeding in the same direction with the latter in front.
It is alleged that Sharpe attempted to cross the road just as the army vehicle was about to overtake her and was struck down. She was taken to the Mackenzie Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
According to the police, shortly after the incident a number of persons, including a male relative of the woman who was armed with a length of iron, approached the driver of the GDF vehicle.

The police stated that the woman’s relative began threatening the driver, causing him to discharge two rounds from his service firearm into the air.
The residents later calmed down after being spoken to by Joint Services Officers and the Regional Chairman, Mortimer Mingo.
Eyewitnesses say that the motorcycle was hurtled into the air and eventually landed several feet away from point of impact. The woman’s left leg was severed below the knee. The motorcycle was only twisted metal. The woman was reportedly on her way to work.
Four army ranks who were in the vehicle were also injured.
Two were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital. Of the two, Private Samuel Parks was treated and admitted while his colleague, Private Simon Johnson was treated and sent away.
Parks is listed in a critical but stable condition, and up to press time doctors were awaiting the results from a CT scan. The rank sustained severe head injuries. The other injured ranks are Private Michael Williams and Private Charlton Roberts. This newspaper was told that they are being treated at Base Camp Ayanganna.
Meanwhile when this newspaper arrived on the scene the woman’s husband, Lindy Sharpe, was draped over his wife’s mutilated body, overcome with grief.

A distraught Sharpe was overheard to comment, “The same things that the police and soldiers charge people for, is the very same things that they are guilty of, which is speeding on the roadways.”
The driver of the vehicle is in police custody assisting with the investigations and the Guyana Defence Force has launched a Board of Inquiry into the accident.