Driver killed after car slams into truck

May 07, 2012 News

An East Bank Demerara (EBD) taxi driver was killed early yesterday morning after being pinned inside of his car for hours following an accident along the Friendship Public Road.
Dead is 30-year-old Richard Smith of Lot 57 Old Road, Craig, EBD, who was returning from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, where reportedly, he had dropped off a passenger.
Reports are that around 04:30 hrs Smith was heading north on the Friendship Public Road, EBD, when his car (HC 166) slammed into a truck (GHH

Richard Smith and his reputed wife Lucille Reynolds in happier times.

5703) which was proceeding in the opposite direction.
The impact from the head-on collision between the two vehicles sent Smith’s Toyota Raum flying backwards some 30 yards.
According to a villager, he heard the noise from the impact and rushed to the scene, while other public-spirited persons ran towards the taxi driver’s vehicle to render assistance.
However, the car was badly damaged with its entire front broken and smashed in and they were unable to pull Smith out of the wreck.
“He had size and was heavy for us to pull out. We tried to get him out but we couldn’t get him out because he was too fat to pass through the small space. You see, he was coming with some speed you know and he end up on the lane with the truck,” said one man.
By the time rescuers managed to pull Smith from the wreck he was already dead.
Kaieteur News was told that the early morning rain had flooded a certain part of the road near to the koker in the vicinity of DIDCO.
There was also a huge hole on the road opposite of the koker on the lane that Smith was driving.
“When it rain plenty, the road does flood and opposite the koker the road breaking away with a big hole, so when the taxi man was coming down like he know the hole was there and swerve onto the truck man lane. But like he didn’t see the truck because of the water spraying up in the air,” a young woman explained.
Another man stated that there was a car in front of the truck which caused water from the road to splash on to Smith’s windscreen, momentarily

The truck (GHH 5703) on a bridge at the Friendship Public Road hours after the head on collision.

obscuring his view.
Lucille Reynolds, the dead man’s reputed wife, told this newspaper that the last time she saw her husband of two years was on Saturday evening when he left for work.
She explained that Smith told her he was going to the airport to drop a passenger early in the morning and would return to take her to work.
“He was to come home this morning (yesterday) cause he normally takes me to work, and I wait for him in town to do so but he didn’t come. I don’t have a cell phone right now and when I got into work I called his number and a police answered and told me he met with an accident. I was told he didn’t make it,” she sobbed.
She described the young man as a quiet, loving and caring individual.
“We don’t have any children together and have been living together for two years now but I have known him for 10 years. He would call at nights to see if I am ok and if I ate and such. It was less than a year he doing taxi work, he was a mechanic before, but was very hardworking,” Reynolds added.
Smith is originally from “B” Field Sophia, Georgetown, and is survived by his reputed wife and