Berbice mom dies five months after car slams into lorry

Jun 02, 2017 News

A mother of seven took her last breath on Tuesday, approximately five months after the car in which she was travelling slammed into a parked lorry at Borlam Turn on the East Coast Berbice Highway.

Dead: Maria Sampson

The dead woman has been identified as Maria Sampson, 51, of Lot 54 Levi Dam, Mount Sinai.
The vehicular accident occurred on January 8, 2017. Herself and other vendors were travelling to purchase vegetables from the Port Mourant Market. The accident occurred at about 23:30h.
Sampson was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital and subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital for further treatment due to the severity of her injuries.
She spent two months in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Hospital followed by an extended month at the New Amsterdam Hospital as a patient before being sent home for care. Sampson never regained consciousness from the time the accident occurred to the time of her death.
The Private Car which included the other passengers including the driver who is yet to be charged escaped with minor injuries.
One of the survivors from the accident , Waveney August said that Sampson had asked her earlier in the day to accompany her on the trip to the market but she said she was going to travel on Monday morning. “She call me Sunday night and asked me if I going and I say no. but she insist. The car come and pick me up at about 10:30 the night.”
“Is she arrange the car. I don’t know the driver; is the first time I see he. She say that she travel with he last week. Anyhow, we went and pick up the other girl and we go,” August said.
August recounted that the driver was speeding, “The two of them drop asleep and the driver fretting all the time about his girlfriend and some man. I tell he that he going too speed and he say, ‘100 is not speed.’”

Daughter: Toda Bristol who took care of her.

The woman stated that they were just about the make the Borlam turn, going at over 100 Km per Hr when they spotted a cow, “He swerve from the cow and the car start dancing on the road and then it lash into the truck. I hear Maria hollering, When I call on she to come out; no response.”
Sampson reportedly suffered brain damage, a ruptured spine, several broken ribs, a punctured kidney, a fractured arm amongst other injuries.
Her 27-year-old daughter, Toda Bristol, explained that she could not eat through her mouth for a month, “She had a tube they put at the side of her stomach and she use to eat through that.”
Divisional Commander Ian Amsterdam stated that when Sampson was at the ICU in Georgetown she was desperately in need of oxygen. A suction pump had to be used to assist her.
Months after the accident Sampson was able to breathe on her own and was taken off the life support machine and sent to New Amsterdam.
According to Officer in Charge of Traffic ‘B’ Division Assistant Superintendant Timothy Williams, the initial file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice. A new file will be prepared following Sampson’s death.

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