A FORTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD carpenter, Kalicharan Goordial, alias James, was on Saturday afternoon killed during an alleged hit-and-run accident at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara.

According to the police, the accident occurred at about 15:00hrs at Second Street, Herstelling, a mere few streets away from Goordial’s home in Creekdam.

The police say that based on their findings, the driver of the motorcar involved in the accident, PVV 4911, was going about his business when, upon turning a corner, he unavoidably hit Goordial.

“Investigations revealed that the pedestrian, who was said to be highly intoxicated, was lying on the centre of the cross-street, which adjoins to Second Street,” the police said in a statement.

Although the driver of the motorcar fled the scene of the accident, the police noted that residents in the neighbourhood rushed the Goordial to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, but by the time they got there, he was already dead.

The driver was later arrested, and a breathalyzer test done, which, though it cleared him of being under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, does not exonerate him from causing Goordial’s death.

As such, he is in police custody, assisting with their investigations into the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Goordial’s sister, Jasmattie, with whom he lived, told the Guyana Chronicle that when she left home that morning, she never thought it was the last she would ever see her brother alive.

“I went out earlier in the morning,” she said, “and when I was coming back around 4:00pm, I saw a crowd with police and residents surrounding somebody who was lying on the floor.
“When I checked, I saw it was James.”

A distraught Jasmattie said her brother was basically an easygoing person, but liked to take a few drinks from time to time. He was not married, and had no children.

Jasmattie said a post mortem examination is expected to be conducted today.