One dead, several injured –in mini-bus collision near Harbour Bridge
Public-spirited citizens assisting to get the injured persons out of the Route 32 mini-bus.
Public-spirited citizens assisting to get the injured persons out of the Route 32 mini-bus.

By Rabindra Rooplall
A TRIP to the 50th Independence Anniversary flag-raising ceremony at D’Urban Park ended tragically for a couple returning home when a mother of three who was with her husband, died after two mini-buses collided around 1:00AM Thursday morning at the junction of the Demerara Harbour Bridge and the Peter’s Hall public road, East Bank Demerara, leaving several others injured.

According to information reaching the Guyana Chronicle, the woman identified as Roxanne Mitchell, 47 years,and her husband were passengers in the Route 32 minibus, BPP 8158, which was turning towards the Harbour Bridge while the Route 42 minibus, BPP 167, was going north towards Georgetown when the two collided.

The driver of the Route 42 minibus, Michael Thorne, who Mr Mitchell accused of speeding. [Adrian Narine photo]
The driver of the Route 42 minibus, Michael Thorne, who Mr Mitchell accused of speeding. [Adrian Narine photo]
Passengers were left stranded in the Route 32 minibus, while Roxanne Mitchell of Lot 24-26 Farm Village, East Bank Essequibo, was observed lying motionless on the roadway. She was subsequently pronounced dead at the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital.

Persons trapped were assisted to the hospital by passersby, the Guyana Fire Service and an ambulance. One woman’s eyeball appeared to be popping out, with blood running profusely from her eyes.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, the husband of the deceased, Peter Mitchell, who was in tears, said his wife of 27 years wanted to visit the flag-raising ceremony to experience the occasion, although he was reluctant to go.

He said they travelled to the event with a bus from the village and an arrangement was made with the same mini-bus to return.

“On our way coming back a Route 42 bus which was speeding, extremely speeding – I saw it, I saw this bus speeding and right away I said this is an accident, so I decided to hold on instinctively,” he said.

He recalled that his wife was sitting on his right-hand side and after the Route 42 minibus slammed into the bus he was travelling in half of her body was pitched through the window.

“The bus turned on her and slide, I call for her, I call for her, Roxanne, Roxanne and I try to lift the bus after coming out from the side. I jumped through the window and tried lifting it off of my wife, I kept calling her but she did not respond to me, she did not respond,” the sorrowful husband lamented.

He noted that the ambulance took a while to arrive at the accident scene as he kept screaming for someone to take his wife to the hospital, “because I see her bleeding and the blood was going down her throat, and when I look at she I see her dentures break.”

He said the Guyana Fire Service eventually assisted and took his wife to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and at the hospital he begged the nurses for information on his wife’s vital signs.

Roxanne Mitchell and her husband in happier times.  Caption: Passersby helping to turn over the mini-bus after it toppled. [Adrian Narine photo]
Roxanne Mitchell and her husband in happier times.
Caption: Passersby helping to turn over the mini-bus after it toppled. [Adrian Narine photo]
“They tried to give her oxygen and saline, but I know something was wrong with my wife, they didn’t tell me nothing until they pulled that blue sheet over her, then I suspected something was very wrong, and then I know it was over,” the husband said sadly.
Describing his wife as a faithful and loving woman, he said she was so kind and loving that he ensured that she received all the things in life to make her happy. Peter Mitchell received injuries to the body and visited the West Demerara Regional Hospital while heading home and he was discharged.

Meanwhile, the father of the driver of the Route 42 minibus, Joseph Thorne, who was also a passenger at the time of the accident, explained that the bus he was travelling in was heading to the city and while in the vicinity of the Harbour Bridge, a car that was turning onto the bridge stopped to allow his son to drive on the right of way when a Route 32 minibus suddenly swung into the path of the Route 42 mini-bus his son was driving, resulting in a collision.

Both mini-buses toppled at the point of impact, Mr. Thorne said, and the Route 32 mini-bus appeared to be overloaded with passengers.

He also related that a woman who was pitched out from the Route 32 mini-bus was pinned by the vehicle onto a nearby utility pole, while many of the injured persons at the scene became irate and wanted to attack persons who were in the Route 42 bus.

Mr. Thorne said that when the police visited the scene, it appeared as if they already had an opinion on the cause of the accident and decided to ill-treat his son Michael Thorne who was the driver.

“The police expressed no concern for the well-being of my son during the entire ordeal after my son was discharged from the GPHC. I took him to Woodlands Hospital, since my son was vomiting. From Woodlands I took him to Providence Police Station since he could not walk. The police had us there for four hours while my son was in and out of consciousness. After begging, they allowed a police escort to take him to the hospital,” he said. Michael Thorne, along with others involved in the accident, was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

 

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