Horrific Berbice accident…

-Relatives recall the last they saw of their loved ones
THE THREE nameless deceased in Friday’s grizzly vehicular smashup on the Suzanna Village Public Road in Berbice have since been positively identified, while one of the injured has been discharged from hospital.
The newly-identified are Nazaradin Mahinudin, 19, of Lot 40 Betsy Ground, East Canje; Chetram Ramphal, 30, and Janet Baker of Bush Lot, and Number 19 respectively, both Corentyne Villages.
Discharged from the hospital is Sham Jaggernauth, who recalled attempting to wake his wife as her lifeless body laid beside him after they were flung out of the minibus following the impact.

Police ranks revisit the scene of the Suzanna accident yesterday

According to the father of two, he had earlier joined the ill-fated bus with his wife to go New Amsterdam to do some shopping. He said he took the passenger seat next to the driver, while his wife took the one next to the conductress.
About fifty yards from the scene of the accident, he recalled, it began to rain, and he observed a car approaching from the opposite direction. He also noticed the truck. “A truck was behind the car, and I saw the driver of the truck overtake the car, and enter our lane, colliding with the bus I was in.”
After that, he lost consciousness, and never came to himself until some 30 minutes later, which is when he noticed his wife lying next to him. “We were flung out of the vehicle; I was seated in some sand ‘bout five feet from the bus. I saw my wife; she was not moving. I shook her, intending that she would wake up, but there was no response. I held on to her, but she was already dead. I started to scream, before passersby took us to the New Amsterdam Hospital.”
Jaggernauth, of Nigg Road, Corentyne, and his wife had been married for 18 years and together they raised two children. He was discharged yesterday after being treated for facial injuries and abrasions along the left arm.
Meanwhile, at Bun-Bush Dam, East Canje, where Nazaradin Manhinudin, one of the 12 who perished, once lived, his parents were overcome with emotion. They’d just identified their son, the second of their children, among the dead at the Arokium Funeral Home at Philadelphia Street, in New Amsterdam.
His father, Aliemodeen Mahinudin, told the Guyana Chronicle that like Salmaa Razac, another of the casualties, his son was also employed at Nand Persaud International Communications as converters. He said that after hearing about the accident, he tried to get his son on his cellular phone, but got no response.
He then proceeded to the New Amsterdam Hospital where officials told him that there were two unidentified males from the accident, but that their bodies had been taken to a funeral home.
He said that on arriving at the Arokium Funeral Home, he observed that the building was closed due to a power outage in the area, so he went back home. That blackout lasted until yesterday morning, but thankfully, the Parlour’s storing facility was powered by a standby generator.
On returning to the Parlour yesterday morning, he was able to identify his son, whose demise has left him in a state of shock.
Meanwhile, Salina Juman, age 40, and her workmate and close friend, Sheila Patricia Asgarally, age 30, died together in the accident. Both were employed at the National Opthamology Centre as auxiliary staff members. At the time of their demise, Asgarally was going to her friend’s home to pass the time. Collectively, they have six children.
Juman’s daughter, Shaneeza, said that upon hearing of her mother’s death, “the world just turned dark.”
And a visit to Plantation Warren, along the Number 19 roadway, Janet Bakker’s brother Franklyn was having a hard time believing that his sister would have joined a speeding minibus. “My sister joined the bus a short distance from where the accident occurred. The bus could not have escalated its speed in such a short distance; it was impossible,” the man said, adding:
“My sister worked at the Lucky House Chinese Restaurant in New Amsterdam; she had a lot to live for. She had eight children; four are living in Suriname, while the younger ones are with her… She would not have gone in a speeding bus.”
An eyewitness, Seepersaud Ramnauth, told the Guyana Chronicle that he was in his yard when he saw the minibus pass by.
“It had just begun to rain lightly,” he said. Labourers were gathering paddy left to dry on the roadway. He then heard an impact, and on rushing out to his bridge, some 25 feet away from the scene of the accident, he saw the truck turning several times before coming to a halt some distance away.
Ramnaught said he then noticed that the side of the minibus was ripped away and that bodies were strewn across the roadway and into a nearby waterway.

Traffic Chief, Neil Semple, who was there on the scene of the accident yesterday, said it is high time people realize that driving a motor vehicle is a serious responsibility, and that they need to exercise caution when using the nation’s roads.
“We have been appealing to drivers over and over again, trying to instill in them that they always have a responsibility when using the roads.  They have to take cognizance that driving a motor vehicle is a serious responsibility and should therefore take heed,” he said.
Among those dead in the accident besides those identified yesterday are: Oudit Narine  Babulall, 33 (the driver of the ill-fated minibus), of Number 48 Village; Salmaa Razac, 23 of lot 104 Main Street, Cumberland; Marques Ault, 14, of  Rose Hall Town;  Cindy Jaggernauth of  Nigg Settlement; two-month-old Josiah Khan, and his mother, Talika Mendonca, 21, of  Kildonan Village;  Patricia Asgarally, 28, of Albion; Salmar Juman, 40, of  East Canje; and  Orlando De Mattos, called Lando, 32, of Manchester Village.
Those still hospitalized are Annawatie Singh, conductress and wife of the minibus driver; Tamika Fraser, Nicloa Ross, and Fiona Paramsook  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.
Semple, who was there with a team of other police officials, expressed sadness over the accident and offered his condolences to the bereaved and otherwise affected families. Noting that the Police Force, and for that matter the entire nation is saddened over the tragic loss of lives, he opined that it should never have happened.
“From the evidence before us, that accident here should not have occurred, even though it might have been raining,” he said, adding: “… where it is raining, there is even greater need for motorists to be careful.”
Noting that their investigations are still ongoing and therefore the police is not at liberty to make a decision at this point in time as to who might have been responsible for the accident, he said: “I am making a general statement, and while I am not being impartial at this time, [suffice it to say] either driver should have exercised caution on the road.”
Among other members of the police team were Commander of ‘B’ Division, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Steve Merai; and Head of Berbice Traffic Division, Deputy Superintendent, Kevin Adonis.
The Traffic Chief also touched on the issue of animals roaming public thoroughfares, which he said constituted a grave traffic hazard, and is prevalent on the Corentyne Coast.
He said that the owners of animals have a responsibility to keep them off the roads, since it is against the law.  He was also of the view that unless strong prosecution is brought against the owners of these animals, this will continue to be a serious problem.
Particularly at nights, they are known to cause a lot of accidents.  Last Monday, a serious accident was caused on the Melanie Damishana Public Road, when horses roaming the thoroughfare crashed into the front of one of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporations’ ambulances, and throughout the journey to Corentyne Coast yesterday, stray cattle were encountered, creating a serious traffic hazard.
A similar development in the past resulted in an official of the United States Embassy advising that Guyana’s roads are not safe for US nationals to traverse, because of the presence of roaming animals on the roadways.
“It is an area we are working on, in conjunction with the government – the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils,” Semple said, adding that Legislation has been passed for this, and such cattle would be impounded and their owners charged and exorbitant fines imposed.