Minibus driver gets 50 months on causing death charge
Jamal John
Jamal John

MINIBUS driver, Jamal John was on Thursday sentenced to 50 months’ imprisonment after being found guilty of causing the death of Desmond Grandsoult, during an accident on Vlissengen Road, Georgetown during December last.

John, 25, was on trial before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman who found him guilty of the charge which said that on December 18, 2017 at Vlissengen Road, he drove minibus, BTT 8476, in a manner dangerous to the public, causing the death of 50-year-old Grandsoult.

Evidence was led by Police Prosecutor Shawn Gonsalves, while John was represented by attorney-at-law Melville Duke.

Two passengers of the said minibus had testified during trial. One of them had testified that on the day in question John drove the vehicle at a fast rate and at one point she had turned to the conductor and asked him: “ What’s wrong with the driver… he driving like he is on the race track?”

John was the driver of the minibus when it collided with the back wheel of Grandsoult’s bicycle.

As a result the minibus toppled several times before ending up in a nearby trach while Grandsoult lost his life.

John during his defence explained that he left the crime scene because he felt threatened by the crowd which had gathered following the accident.

The Magistrate in her summing up of the evidence told the court: “If Jamal John was paying attention to the road he would have seen Mr. Grandsoult.”

She added that the defendant was inattentive to his driving and failed to exercise care, courtesy, consideration, caution and commonsense while using the roadway.
The court was further told that due to the collision, Grandsoult died from several broken ribs along with a fractured skull.

Attorney Duke begged the magistrate for a ‘light sentence’ and told the court that his client was the sole breadwinner of his two kids and he was a former officer of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF)

The magistrate took into consideration the fact that a life was lost, that John was a former GDF officer and failed to render assistance to the injured man and the need to promote road safety.

It was on those grounds that the magistrate sentenced John.

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