A POLICEMAN is now dead and two other persons are in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), following an accident between a ‘bush truck’ and a motor car at Sixth Street and Third Avenue, Bartica, shortly before 2:00 hrs yesterday morning.

Dead is Constable Delon Forde, 21, of Linden, Region Ten, who was based at the Bartica Police Station.  Those injured are Tamaldeo Heeraman, 53, and his 25-year-old daughter whose name this news paper could not confirm up to press time last night.

Witnesses said Forde, who was investigating an accident which happened moments before, involving two motor cars, was pinned under the truck which struck him down. He died on the spot and it took several minutes before his body was retrieved from the bottom of the vehicle witnesses said.  The truck, laden with fuel, was travelling to an interior mining camp.

Meanwhile, Heeraman and his daughter were among a crowd of people gathered at the scene of the first accident involving the two motor cars,  and may have been occupants of one of those two motor cars, a source told this newspaper.  They were rushed to the Bartica Hospital and later transferred to the GPHC in the city.

Witnesses said the driver of the truck who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, hit a car which was parked at the side of the road, before ploughing into the policeman and the two Heeraman family members.   Other persons on the scene reportedly escaped narrowly, having scampered for their lives.

Residents are adamant over the policeman’s death and injury to the father and daughter, claiming that there was no way a clear-eyed driver could have failed to see the policeman, three cars and a crowd of people on the road and plough into them.

The truck which appeared to be coming from First Avenue, Bartica and heading towards Third Avenue, reportedly jumped a caution line on the road, causing the accident.

Constable Forde, who also performed guard duties at the Bartica Gold Board, was due to be relieved by another policeman from Georgetown yesterday morning.  Ironically, the cop relieving him, heard of the tragedy while in the speed-boat travelling to Bartica yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, witnesses claimed that the policeman was asleep when one of the drivers of the motor cars woke him up to investigate the accident.  Coming out of his bed was a mistake he made, for which he paid an expensive price, one Bartica resident told the Chronicle.