Cornelia Ida businessman, friend perish in two-vehicle crash

Jun 02, 2011 News

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– alcohol, speeding blamed

A Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara businessman and his friend are dead and a taxi driver seriously injured after a horrific two-vehicle collision late Tuesday night at Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo.
Police investigators yesterday said that initial investigations revealed that the two dead men may have been drinking. They add that speeding may have led to the crash.
Dead are Tameshwar Persaud called ‘Navin’ and ‘Mannish Puppy’, 27, of 17 Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara; and Ramraj ‘Ameer’ Azeez, 21, of ‘Bus Shed Street’, Anna Catherina.
Doctors were yesterday operating on 50-year-old taxi-driver Derrick Lewis of Farm, East Bank Essequibo, who suffered several broken bones.
According to reports, the head-on collision happened shortly after 23:00hrs while Persaud, who manages the popular ‘Paps Liquor Restaurant’, was driving his maroon-coloured AT192, PLL9836, from Orangestein, East Bank Essequibo, to his Cornelia Ida home.
In the vicinity of the “Lungee” supermarket, he reportedly swerved to avoid a pedestrian but because of the speed, was unable to control the car. He collided head-on with the Toyota Spacio taxi, HB 8575, that was headed in the opposite direction.
Residents in the area heard the loud impact and rushed to the scene where the two cars were found badly damaged. Residents and family members pulled the three men from the wreckage and rushed them to the Cottage Hospital.
Both Persaud and Azeez, a former conductor and employee of a village vehicle tint shop, were later pronounced dead by doctors. Lewis was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where doctors were late yesterday working to repair a broken hip and several bones. Both vehicles were totaled.
At the GPHC, Lewis, who is a patient of the Male Surgical Ward was flanked by his relatives and family friends. He explained to Kaieteur News that he was returning to his home in Tuschen, West Coast Demerara, after a hard day’s work.
He said that he was proceeding at a reasonable rate of speed when he saw a “bright light coming” towards his vehicle in his lane.
Lewis said, “The light almost reach and I had to pull out towards the parapet which caused the side of my car to receive the impact rather than suffer a head-on collision. After this happened, I can’t remember anything else except waking up in a hospital”.
The injured man’s wife (whose name was not supplied) stated that Lewis, while in the ambulance en route to the hospital, kept saying, “So many years, 30-something-odd years I driving and never went in an accident”.
His relatives explained that the doctors told them that Lewis suffered a fractured shoulder, broken pelvis and four fractured ribs, all on the right side of his body.
According to Persaud’s father, Vishnu, his son, left around 15:00hrs, more than likely to visit a female friend in Orangestein.
He explained that the family runs a bar below their Cornelia Ida home but would close on Tuesdays.
“I got a call last night after 11;00 (23:00hrs) that he involved in an accident. We went to Cottage (Hospital) where he friends them keep telling me he alright.”
But the father was stopped by police at the hospital from seeing his son and the news was broken to him.
Persaud also leaves to mourn his mother, Maywattie and sister, Nadine.
“We don’t have much information other than what they telling us,” the dead man’s father said.
Several relatives and friends were gathered at Azeez’s home yesterday.
A devastated mother, Khemragee, said that she last saw her son around 17:00hrs Tuesday.
“He was helping me do some packing up in the yard. He tell me he na able. I ask he who gun help? And he left.”
It was the last time the woman saw her son alive.
“Somebody call me son-in-law and tell he that Ameer in an accident. He na tell me anything. I jump in a taxi and go down to Cottage Hospital.”
At the hospital, the police finally allowed the anguished woman to see her son.
The mother believes that Azeez may have died from a broken neck.
“Me hold he head and try to straighten it out but it keep falling on one side. This is meh son that I had plans for…He was getting he driver’s licence next week.”
Azeez was the last of five children.
According to a police release yesterday, investigations have revealed motor vehicles PLL 9826 and HB 8575 were proceeding along the Vergenoegen Public Road in opposite directions when they collided.
Both Persaud and Azeez received injuries.  They were taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival (DOA).
Lewis’s condition was listed as critical yesterday, the police said.

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