Father of six killed after collision with taxi

Feb 01, 2011 News

The taxi that collided with the cyclist.

David Kofoi Yacuba

By Rabindra Rooplall and Abena Rockliff

David Kofoi Yacuba, 34, of 54 Graham Street Plaisance, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was killed on the spot after the hire car driver of HB 7247 collided with his bicycle in Better Hope, East Coast Demerara Sunday night.
The father of six was returning home after visiting a friend at Better Hope. He was riding on the public road when the Toyota AT 212 hit him, causing his footwear to be pitched several yards away from the scene of the accident. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The mangled bicycle and the car were taken to Sparendaam Police Station, while the driver of the hire car is in police custody pending charges.
At the scene of the accident, an opened bottle of alcoholic beverage was found at the side of the driver’s seat while residents in the area claimed that the driver was speeding.
It was also noted that the car had streaks of blood on the bonnet while the roof was badly damaged by the impact.
According the Carol Johnson, her reputed husband left the house around 21:30 hrs Sunday to visit a friend who is also a workmate at Better Hope. He never returned home.
“He did ask me to go with he but I tell he dem children got to go to school tomorrow so I gon stay home and get everything on stream… Them ain’t even get to go to school cause dem did worried because he didn’t come home,” the distraught Johnson said. “If I did know that, that would a been the last time I seeing he I would a never allow he to leave the house.”
She added that earlier in the day, the family had a little “get together” at his residence. And her reputed husband, who was a mason by profession and the sole breadwinner of the home, only had “a few light drinks of Banko…He wasn’t drunk.”
Adding that she was not aware of the accident until yesterday afternoon, she said that after she saw it was getting late and her husband did not return home, she decided to visit his work place and other friends. Then she visited the Sparendaam Police Station, since it crossed her mind that he might have been in the lock ups because the bicycle he was riding had no lights.
Johnson told this publication that, upon visiting the Sparendaam Police Station, she described her husband to the police and informed them of the clothing he was wearing. It was then the officers “tell me to take a seat then break the news to me that he dead… I couldn’t catch meself.”
Relatives who flooded the home of the deceased described him to be a peaceful, loving and caring individual who was “always working”.
Yacuba leaves to mourn his wife and six children, two boys and four girls, the eldest being 20-years-old while the youngest is 20 months.