Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:20 AM
Minibus driver crushes colleague’s skull in fatal crash
A 36-year-old minibus driver met a tragic end yesterday morning when his head was crushed against a concrete wall by an out of control bus BGG 3731, on the Strathspey Public Road, East Coast Demerara.
Jagdesh Ramnarine, called Narine, was walking along the southern parapet of the road on his way to work when a minibus veered off the road and pinned him to a concrete fence even as he tried desperately to get out of the way.
Dead: Jagdesh Ramnarine called Narine
Ramnarine’s wife Deedee Rafeek wept uncontrollably while hugging her three children at the scene of the accident.
Such was the impact that Ramnarine’s brain popped out of his shattered skull and landed several feet in a nearby yard.
Undertakers assisted by public spirited residents were then forced to lift the bus from the wall to free Ramnarine’s lifeless body as a large crowd gathered to get a glimpse of the unusual sight.
This newspaper was told that Ramnarine, a father of three, had left his home at 78 Section B Non Pareil to go to Strathspey to collect the bus that he normally operates.
The popular bus driver had just disembarked from another vehicle when he was struck down.
His wife Deedee Sharmain Rafeek, the manager at the Avishkar Store in the city, tearfully recounted that she was at home waiting for her husband to come and pick her up to take her to work when the owner of the bus that her husband operated delivered the tragic news via telephone.
According to Rafeek, she heard her children screaming that their father was dead but she dismissed it as a prank.
“Me say, No, alyuh daddy nah dead; that is lie. Somebody give alyuh wrong message.’ But was the bossman fuh de bus call and tell them that they father just get in an accident and died,” she recalled.
She described her husband as a great person whose three children, Ashley, 11, Brandon, nine, and six-year-old Alan, loved the dust he walked on.
She revealed that Ashley recently sat the National Grade Six Assessment Examination and her father was anxiously awaiting the results.
“Me husband really loving. He tell he daughter last night that he want fuh see she results, which school you gone get, but he nah gone see she go secondary school,” Rafeek cried.
The tragic event was too much for Nandkumar Isardat, the driver of the bus that struck down Ramnarine. After the accident he learnt that the dead man was his colleague who worked the same route as he did.
Although in a state of shock, Isardat managed to recall the sequence of events that led to the accident.
While holding back tears he told Kaieteur News that he was heading west with a load of passengers when two other buses stopped in front of him.
One of the buses happened to be the one that Ramnarine had just disembarked from.
According to Isardat, he applied brakes to avoid slamming into the bus in front of him but the device failed.
“All I hear is ‘pop!’ and I had to take the corner. this man (Ramnarine) who come out of de fuss bus walking and after he see de bus ah come fuh de corner, he decide fuh run, thinking he go pass de bus. But he nah pas de bus…He end up centre ah de bus,” Isardat related to this newspaper.
He too was inconsolable, smoking cigarette after cigarette until he was taken into custody by the police.
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