-JE Burnham Nursery headmistress among  casualties
AT LEAST two persons were confirmed dead at press time, and another eleven are in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and elsewhere in the city following a horrific accident on Homestretch Avenue as the driver of a speeding Route No. 48 (Sophia) minibus lost control,causing the bus to topple several times before coming to a halt. Dead is Caretta Benjamin, Headmistress of the J.E. Burnham Nursery School, whose address was given as D’Urban Street, Wortmanville.  The other person is an adult male  who, up to press time, was still unidentified.

Among the injured travelling in the ill-fated minibus, BM 988, named ‘Gold Rush’ are: Benjamin’s daughter, eight-year-old Crystal Paul; her cousin Delicia Paul; Keisha Thorton 22, of ‘A’ Field Sophia;  Peter Mc Lennon and his two nephews – Michael and Anthony Latchmin (who were rushed to Woodlands Hospital); Chrimmase Archibald, 16, of Sophia, her brother Seon Archibald, 10, and sister, Tattianna, three; and Royston Garraway 30,  also of Sophia.
Reports are that the minibus, which was travelling west on Homestretch Avenue en route to the Stabroek bus park around 19:00h, was attempting to overtake a pink-and- white minibus when one of its wheels apparently blew out, sending it toppling down the road. 
Once out of control, the vehicle developed momentum, and, moving with the speed of an ‘avalanche’, began depositing badly injured and screaming commuters covered with blood, metal, window and windscreen fragments within a 30 feet radius of the vehicle. 
Following the crash, the wheel which had blown out was found about 80 feet away from where the bus ended up.
Word that at least four commuters were trapped under the steel in the bus evoked a prompt response from the Fire Department and two units were hurriedly dispatched to the scene.  However, the trapped persons had already been freed and rushed to the GPHC by the time they arrived on the scene.
Meanwhile, the road where the accident happened was literally covered with smashed windscreen and huge pools of  passengers’blood and for a prolonged period following the accident, traffic along that route ground to a halt, as police and firemen sought to maintain order as the rescue operations continued.
Over at the GPHC, doctors and ancillary staff were kept busy as persons hearing of the accident and having loved ones travelling that route rushed down to make enquiries about the dead and injured. 
For several hours, the crowd grew steadily, and amidst the surge, porters on duty could be seen rushing to and fro, moving bodies to the mortuary and raising suspicion about the fate of those hanging desperately on to life. 
A badly injured and blood-covered patient in an ambulance, delirious and gripped by pain, could be seen tearing off his bandages and pulling the saline tubes out. At least four bodies were wheeled away as persons waited outside the hospital, but only two of those injured in the accident were confirmed dead.
The scene was hair-raising as 52-year old Shirley Richards, employed with Kalibur Security Service, arrived on the scene, hysterical after receiving word that her three children had been involved in the accident. 
As she was shunted back and forth without being given any definite answer, she was eventually confronted with the reality: Her ten-year-old son, Sean, who suffered severe injuries to the head, arms and shoulders, was being hurriedly wheeled into an ambulance and taken for a MRI scan.  The lives of her other two children were reportedly hanging in the balance as well.  Weeping and inconsolable, she tried desperately to catch up with the ambulance, but was eventually whisked away by sympathetic women on the scene.
A 78-year-old grandmother, weak and nervous, turned up enquiring about her teenaged granddaughter who had left their Sophia home earlier in the afternoon and had not returned.
Assistant Chief Education Officer (Nursery), Shirley Madray, on learning of Benjamin’s death, hurried down to the hospital where she wept openly for her colleague.
Meanwhile, Benjamin’s relatives joined hands and forming a circle, ‘stormed heaven’ as they prayed for the recovery of her eight-year-old daughter Crystal.
Last evening’s accident brought to the fore the compassion within the hearts of Guyanese, one for another, in times like these.
Huge crowds, known or unknown to the bereaved and otherwise troubled, stoutly rallied around them, offering whatever support they could.