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Homestretch Ave. horrific minibus crash… FOUR DEAD
Dead: Crazel Paul
Dead: Coretta Benjamin
Dead: Peter Mc Lennon
Four people, including a nursery school head-teacher and her eight-year-old daughter were killed and several others badly injured at around 18:00 hrs yesterday, after a speeding bus suffered a blowout and rolled over four times on Homestretch Avenue.
Confirmed dead are 39-year-old J. E Burnham Nursery School principal, Coretta Benjamin, of Lot 704 B Field Sophia; her eight-year-old daughter, Crazel Paul, who was celebrating her birthday yesterday; Peter Mc Lennon 29, of Sophia, and an unidentified male.
Benjamin died shortly after being rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, while her daughter, Mc Lennon and the unidentified male died while being treated at the GPHC.
Mrs. Benjamin was taking her daughter, and her eight-year-old, US-based niece, Renesha Benjamin -Moore to buy ice cream to celebrate Crazel’s birthday.
Renesha, who came in from the US on Sunday, is also hospitalised with serious injuries. She was taken to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.
Several other passengers were badly injured, and some were still unconscious at press time.
Many of them were hurled onto the roadway when the vehicle, BMM 9888, overturned.
Among the injured are Colin Jones, 22; Delecia Paul, 15, who suffered injuries to her head and legs; three-year-old Tatianna Archibald , of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo; Royston Garraway, 30, of Lot 405 South Sophia; Jamacie Archibald, 16; ten-year-old Shawn Archibald; and Keisha Thornton, two brothers Michael and Anthony Latchmin. Michael and Anthony were reportedly with Mc Lennon. They, like the other passengers were heading to the city. Mc Lennon, according to relatives, attended his brother’s wedding last week. On Sunday he was at the centre of the Second Sunday. One day later he was dead.
The children Jamacie Archibald, Shawn Archibald and little Tatianna Smith were still unconscious up to late last night.
The three siblings live at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo but would stay at an aunt in Sophia.
Keisha Thornton, of the Cyril Potter College of Education, according to hospital sources, lost almost all of her teeth.
Relatives disclosed last night that the woman got engaged only last week.
Meanwhile the driver, Jermaine Jackson, escaped with hardly a scratch and was taken into custody. Kaieteur News understands that his licence had expired since March.
The damaged minibus ‘Gold Rush’
At the scene of the accident, the driver had said that he didn’t think that the accident ‘was serious’, and he believed that only one of his passengers had been badly injured.
A brief police release stated that the mini-bus was proceeding along Homestretch Avenue when one of the rear wheels blew out causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle which toppled several times.
Sophia resident Royston Garraway, who miraculously escaped with minor injuries, said that he was in the seat behind the driver when disaster struck.
Garraway recalled that the bus, which had picked up passengers in Sophia, had just turned into Homestretch Avenue when the driver, was going “at reasonable speed”, overtook another bus and lost control of his vehicle.
The vehicle then suffered a blowout and toppled over several times.
He said that when the bus came to a standstill, he saw several of the passengers lying on the roadway. According to Garraway, he saw a small child pinned under the overturned bus.
Garraway said that a police vehicle took him and some of the other injured to the GPHC.
Delecia Paul, a 15-year-old Queen’s College student who suffered head and leg injuries, said that the driver only began speeding when he turned into Homestretch Avenue, and before she could say anything, the vehicle had toppled.
There was chaos at the hospital as Sophia residents rushed to the GPHC to ascertain whether their relatives were among the injured.
Shirley Richards, the mother of Jamacie, Shawn, and little Tatianna Smith, only learnt about the tragedy after the aunt at whose home they were staying kept calling to ascertain if the siblings had arrived safely.
The relatives subsequently heard about the Homestretch Avenue accident and both mother and aunt rushed to the GPHC.
Mrs. Smith became hysterical on learning that all three of her children were hospitalised.
GPHC security staff eventually had to take her into the Emergency Unit to reassure her that the two children were still alive.
Some of the Sophia residents complained that most of the confusion at the GPHC occurred because hospital security refused to allow them to identify the injured.
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