East Bank Essequibo fatal accident...Varying accounts of how mishap occurred

East Bank Essequibo fatal accident…Varying accounts of how mishap occurred

Apr 20, 2014 News

Even as police continue their investigation into the accident at Orangestein, East Bank Essequibo, on Friday morning, which claimed the life of one and left seven others injured, a number of interesting theories have surfaced regarding its cause.

Dead: Balraj

The accident, which saw minibus PDD 6784 and motor canter GKK 9974 colliding, claimed the life of 53-year-old farmer and bus driver Balraj, of Parika Backdam, East Bank Essequibo. The vehicles were heading in opposite directions.
Among the injured was driver of the canter 72-year-old Abdul Jahur of Good Hope, East Bank Essequibo. He was reportedly heading to his butcher shop at Parika also on the East Bank of Essequibo, in the company of his wife, 52-year-old Fareeda Jahur, and an employee, 30-year-old Nadira Persaud, when the accident occurred.
Persaud is now home with a broken right foot, lacerations about her body and clueless about how the accident occurred, she and the Jahurs were admitted patients at the Dr Balwant Singh Hospital. The couple claims to have no recollection of the accident. They have since been transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and are nursing head injuries, broken ribs and punctured lungs, according to a relative.
All of the injured were initially taken to the Leonora Diagnostic Centre for treatment before being transferred to city hospitals.
Also injured were minibus passengers Rajesh Ganesh, 42, who sustained injuries to his chin and forehead and his 11-year-old son, Satyanand Ganesh, who suffered a wound to his head; Pooja Singh, 11 – a broken left foot and left hand and Asheanna Dudnauth, 11 – a broken left foot and fractured left side face. Dudnauth was required to undergo CT Scan to ascertain the extent of her injuries.
Although Rajesh Ganesh and his son have been discharged as patients of the GPHC, Singh and Dudnauth remain hospitalised there.
All of the injured children, this publication was informed, were on their way to participate in the 2014 National Grade Six Assessment at the Academy of Excellence at Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara.
Initial reports reaching this publication were that the minibus driver had swerved from a cow and ended up in the path of the canter. However the dead man’s daughter, 25-year-old Chan Singh, is bitterly disputing this theory. According to her, an eyewitness recount of the incident revealed that her father was driving east along the thoroughfare and the canter in the opposite direction.
The eyewitness, the young lady said, recalled seeing the canter driver attempt to overtake a vehicle in his lane but failing in his bid to do so, and instead colliding with a cow first before spinning and slamming into her father’s minibus.
The eyewitness report, she added, detailed how her father, on observing that the canter was moving at great speed into his path, swerved into the corner of the road, but was unable to avoid the collision which claimed his life.

Balraj’s children (on either side) along with his reputed wife, Khemrajie (second from left) and nephew, Narine.

“I never knew my father as a man that does drive speed…all my life I know how my father does drive… I am almost 26 years old and I can remember my father always telling my brother don’t drive speed,” said the distraught woman. Even as she recalled seeing her father’s broken body, she was adamant that “my father died an innocent man…there is no way I could believe the accident was his fault.”
Although none of the injured were able to recount what led to the accident on Friday, yesterday Rajesh Ganesh told this publication that he can now vividly remember what happened. According to the man, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the minibus he remembers seeing a speeding canter swinging into the lane of the minibus in order to overtake a car. He does not recall seeing any cow but remembers that meat from the back of the canter was thrown onto the roadway as a result of the collision.
According to him, he realised that although the minibus was moving at a moderate pace, there was no way to avoid a head-on collision with canter.
“All I coulda do was cover me face and brace for the impact,” said the man in a telephone interview with this publication yesterday. He remembers hitting his chest and head into the dashboard of the minibus and is certain that his fate could have been worse had he not been wearing his seat belt. “Is that seat belt save me,” the man noted yesterday.
Despite the fact that Balraj too was wearing his seatbelt, his fate was dissimilar.
He leaves to mourn his two children Chan and Stephon, reputed wife Khemrajie and 96-year-old mother Umaria.
Balraj is scheduled to be cremated on Thursday at Ruimzeight on the West Coast of Demerara.