Friends perish after leaving wedding house

Aug 02, 2010 News

– Five fatalities recorded for last week

An evening of fun ended in tragedy for three friends, all of Ruimzeight, West Coast Demerara, after the car in which they were travelling in lost control and ended up in a canal.

The wrecked car which was involved in the accident.

When the car was pulled from the canal, Premenand Ramnarine’s lifeless body was recovered, while his friend, Deoram Choonilall was later pronounced dead while receiving treatment at the Leonora Cottage Hospital.
Choonilall’s younger brother, Chaitram Choonilall, who was also in the car at the time, was the only survivor and was treated at the same hospital but subsequently released.
Premenand Ramnarine’s father, Ramnarine told this newspaper that he last saw his son around 19:00 hours on Saturday.
The senior Ramnarine related to this newspaper that sometime close to midnight on Saturday, he received a call from a neighbour who informed him that his son was involved in an accident. The man added that he was told that his son, who was the driver of the car, along with his two friends were heading home from a ‘wedding house’ when the incident occurred.
Ramnarine added that he was only told that while negotiating a turn at Leonora in the vicinity of the FX Photo Studio, his son lost control of the car which struck a utility pole before plunging into a nearby canal. At the man’s house yesterday morning, relatives were all inconsolable as they tried to come to grips with the reality of his death.
The man’s girlfriend of nine years, Regina Raj, who also spoke with this newspaper, said she last saw him alive around 15:00 hours on Saturday. She said she was at home when she received a phone call from his cousin who informed her that he was involved in an accident.
“First dem tell me that he went in a accident and he deh at de hospital tekking saline, but when meh reach at de scene me see a hearse driving off and dem tell me he done dead,” the sobbing woman recalled, while clutching a photograph of him.
Meanwhile, Choonilall’s father, Jailall Choonilall told this publication said his two sons left their home earlier in the evening, informing him that they were going to a reunion in Windsor Forest and then to a wedding in Uitvlugt. He said he too received a telephone call and when he raced down to the scene, persons were trying to rescue his elder son and the driver from the wrecked vehicle since his other son had already made his way out of the car.
“Me son tell me after de car plunge in de trench, de windscreen break and he hurry out but he big brother and de driver like dem get trap inside. But de people really try fuh save dem.”
The man said when the driver was removed from the car, he appeared to be dead while his elder son died while receiving treatment.
However, the lone survivor had to be rushed back to the Leonora Cottage Hospital after complaining of severe pains.
The two bodies are currently at the Ezekiel Funeral Home awaiting a post mortem examination.
In the meantime this latest accident has pushed the country’s road fatality figure for last week alone to five.
On Sunday last, 69 year old Bernice Savitrie Herbert, a mother of six was killed, and three persons were injured after a speeding car collided into them as they were awaiting transportation on the Crane Public Road.
Also on Monday, a driver of a car, Shamal Mohamed, 19, of 224 Second Street Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, died on the spot when his rented Toyota 192 Carina, PLL 9276, ploughed through a fence shortly after 15:00 hours.
Thirty-one-year-old Ravi Singh, of Montrose, East Coast Demerara, succumbed to massive head injuries on Saturday after his Toyota AT 212 motor car crashed head on into a minibus that was heading in the opposite direction along the main East Coast Demerara Highway in the vicinity of Vryheid’s Lust.

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Reckless driving causes another accident

A bus load of passengers got the scare of their lives when a route 50 minibus, BLL 3856, crashed into the trench at junction of the University of Guyana Access Road and the East Coast Demerara Highway, after swerving from car, yesterday.
While the bus was significantly damaged, the car which allegedly caused the mishap was taken to the Sparendaam Police Station.
According to passengers, they were travelling to Georgetown, and in the vicinity of the stop light at the UG Access Road, a vehicle swerved into the path of the minibus forcing the driver to take evasive action.
This resulted in the bus, which was filled with passengers, to end up in the nearby trench.
The passengers were not severely injured but they were all taken by an ambulance to the Georgetown Public Hospital as a precautionary measure.

The bus that crashed into the trench at the head of UG road.

For one of the passengers, the accident was the second for her in a day.
She said that earlier yesterday she was travelling in a bus from Berbice which slammed into a cow and passengers were forced to disembark and join the bus which was engaged in the UG Access Road accident.
“These drivers on this road need to be more careful.”
Most of the passengers were heading to the National Park to take part in the Emancipation Day celebrations.