12 dead, including a two- month- old baby
Twelve persons are dead and five injured, following a motor vehicle collision between a truck and a minibus at Suzanna Village, East Corentyne, Berbice, yesterday afternoon.
Three of them are yet to be identified.
Those identified are: Oudit Narine  Babulall 33(the driver of the ill-fated minibus), of Number 48 Village; Salma Razack, 23 of lot 104 Main Street, Cumberland; Marques Ault 14, of  Rose Hall Town;  Cindy Jaggernauth of  37 Nigg Settlement; Josiah Khan, 2 months old, along with his mother Talika Mendonca, 21, of  Kildonan Village;  Patricia Asgarally 28, of Albion; and Salmar Juman; 40, of  East Canje.
The injured are: Sham Jaggernauth of Nigg Settlement, who lost his wife, Tamika Fraser; Nicholas Ross; Ashanti Singh and Fiona Paramsook, a student of Corentyne Comprehensive Secondary School.
Fiona suffered a fractured femur and facial injuries and was taken by ambulance to the Georgetown Public Hospital.  The others are in a stable condition at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who rushed to New Amsterdam in response to news about the accident, said his staff from the Ministry of Health were among the first to witness the accident.
The team of health workers who had just concluded a training exercise on the Corentyne was travelling behind the minibus when tragedy struck.
The accident occurred about a five minute drive from the Berbice River bridge. Dr. Ramsammy said his staff were traumatized, having witnessed the body parts strewn about the busy Corentyne thoroughfare.
Eye witnesses said the accident occurred when after a speeding minibus collided with motor lorry which was travelling in the opposite direction. The overloaded minibus was taking passengers to New Amsterdam, while the truck, registered to R. Persaud of 36 Johanna, South Black Bush Polder, was returning to its Corentyne destination.
The scene was described by an eye witness as ‘heart breaking’ as human remains were being hauled out of a nearby waterway.  One of the victims was decapitated.  Personal belongings, along with body parts which include fingers, a part of a skull, along with parts of a face were imbedded in the right front side of the truck.
A father, Royston Ault, who lost his wife to cancer two years ago, was devastated when he heard that their eldest son Marques was among the dead. A caring father, Ault had, minutes before placed his son into the vehicle in order to ensure he got to school on time.  However, moments later, on hearing of the accident, the father of three who is also a hire car driver, drove to the scene, and hurriedly transported his son to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The elder Ault had to be admitted to the health institution where he is being monitored by medical staff.
Meanwhile, Joel Khan, father of the two-month old Josiah, recalled bitter-sweet relationship with his son’s mother.  According to him, he visited them on Thursday at their Kildonan Village home, but the woman was reluctant to speak to him, and he said, having spent some time with his only child, Josiah, her relatives asked him to leave and he did so. Little did he know it would have been his last visit to his son.
Lakeram Babulall, father of the driver, Oudit Narine, recalled he was in the backland when he heard about his son’s demise.  At the New Amsterdam hospital last night, he was trying to cope with the tragedy which left his son – a father of one, dead.
The mother of Salmar Razack was inconsolable after the father identified their only daughter’s body. The 23-year-old was returning home from work at Nand Persaud’s Communication inc. at Tain.
When the Guyana Chronicle arrived at the scene, scores of persons had already gathered and witnesses said the cause of the accident was speeding.  The bodies removed from the scene displayed multiple injuries and blood flowed freely from cuts and wounds.  The bodies were transported in ambulance and police vehicle.
Meanwhile, there was chaos at the New Amsterdam Hospital where relatives and friends had converged to see their loved ones.
Residents described the accident as one of, if not ‘the worst’, ever witnessed on the Corentyne.

Other terrible accidents

On   October 10, 2007, ten persons were confirmed dead after a mini-bus smashed into the back of a truck laden with logs and stuck on the top of the hill in Amelia’s Ward, Linden.
Residents said that from all indications the mini-bus was speeding when it slammed into the parked truck in what was described as the most tragic accident in Linden.
The bus was ferrying passengers on the internal route between McKenzie and Amelia’s Ward when tragedy struck.
Witnesses said that the bus was going up the Amelia’s Ward Hill and when it was close to the top, the driver apparently attempted to overtake two other vehicles but was caught in the glare of the headlamps from a vehicle coming in the opposite direction and swerved to avoid a collision and the bus slammed into the truck. (Extract from Guyana Chronicle, Friday October 12, 2007).
Three “Stain Masters Guyana Limited Employees” were killed on the spot on the morning of July 2, 2000, about 06:45h on the Soesdyke Public Road. The driver of the company’s mini-bus had swerved from hitting a child and crashed into a lamp-post. The vehicle was on its way to Cheddi Jagan International Airport with the morning staff. (Extract from Guyana Chronicle, Monday July 3, 2000).
The next day, a three vehicle smash up on the Soesdyke Linden Highway claimed the lives of eight persons, including three members of one family. The accident occurred around 19:00h at Kuru Kururu on the one mile turn and involved two cars and a canter truck. (Extract from the Guyana Chronicle, July 4, 2000).