…three seriously injured
ONE woman is now dead and at least three other persons seriously injured following an accident between a canter truck and a police vehicle at the Guysuco Access Road junction at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, shortly after 14:00hrs yesterday. Dead is Shrantrine Persaud, 66, of Cove and John, also on the East Coast Demerara. Persaud, who was pronounced dead on arrival at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, had both legs severely crushed and suffered injuries to the head.
Another woman, Lucille Abrams 38, of 123 Enmore North, is in danger of losing her right hand which was also badly crushed; 27-year old Anthony Reece, a police rank, who said he was sleeping in the police vehicle when the accident occured, appeared not seriously hurt, but was in a wheel chair and unable to walk. The driver of the police vehicle, Mark Jones, 21, of 106 D4 South Turkeyen, was also injured and rushed to an emergency room at the hospital.

Witnesses who rushed down to the hospital following the accident, claimed that the injured women and about two others were standing at the roadside awaiting transportation to go to their respective homes, when a speeding and out-of-control canter truck crashed into a police patrol vehicle. The vehicle, in turn, crashed into the women.

As news of the accident spread, relatives of the dead and injured persons rushed down to the hospital. The dead woman’s sister, Basanti Harry, who said she received a phone call informing her about the accident, became hysterical after receiving confirmation from hospital authorities that her sister had died. Bassanti said that her elder sister had left home earlier in the day to go shopping at the Enmore Market, as she would normally do each week, and had completed her shopping and was returning home when tragedy struck. She said when she arrived at the scene of the accident she recovered her sister’s shopping basket and other personal effects.

Meanwhile, Abram’s sister, Cheryl, also retrieved her sister’s blood-covered handbags, jewellery and documents.
Persaud, a mother of five, is also survived by two brothers and sister, Bassanti Harry.