– as fleeing motor car smashes into utility poles at Goed Fortuin
FOUR persons narrowly escaped death on Friday night when a drunken driver of motor car PMM 9414 thought it best to flee from a police patrol that attempted to pull them over. The motor car was intercepted in the vicinity of the Vreed-en-Hoop junction when the driver increased his speed and careened off the public road at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, which was wet at the time.
In the car at the time of the accident were Rajindradat Lall who was driving the car, Arnold and 13 year-old Satesh Dhanraj. The name of the fourth person is not known.
Yesterday morning Lall and Arnold were reported to be in police custody, while the 13-year old was admitted to the West Demerara Regional Hospital but later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Yesterday too, relatives of the driver of the car explained that they had no knowledge of the identity of the other persons who were in the car at the time of the accident. The impact caused the car to uproot bridges and utility poles in the process before coming to a halt spanning a nearby drain.
At least two of the occupants of the vehicle were said to be residents of Canal No. 1 Polder, West Bank Demerara. Another resident of Canal No. 1 explained that earlier on Friday night he had just disembarked his vehicle to converse with a friend when the same motor car PMM 9414 almost slammed into the rear of his vehicle. The man said that he heard a screeching sound and when he looked back he realized that the motor car took evasive measure to avoid a collision. He added that as the driver of the car sort himself out and proceeded, a strong smell of alcohol filled the air as the car with its occupants took off.
The smashing of the utility poles resulted in the disruption of electricity supply in the surrounding communities.
When this newspaper visited the scene yesterday morning extensive damage could be seen at the scene. A pole that held electrical wires for the Guyana Power and Light and another one which supported lines for the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company were split in two as the sections of both poles were left dangling from the power lines while the other halves lay on the ground. The car was folded up in a corner of a resident’s fence as evidence that the air bags in the vehicle were activated as a result of the impact.
One resident told the Guyana chronicle that he had just retired to bed when he heard a screeching sound and seconds later the entire area was plunged into darkness. He said that when he peered outside to see what was happening he noticed that a car with several persons was plastered against his fence.
The man said that within seconds, a police patrol that was speeding around the turn behind the vehicle pulled up at the scene. The man recalled the accident to have taken place at approximately 22.30 hrs. The man said that from the impressions left by the tyre marks of the car it also ran down into a drain that was partially dry. He said that the slush from the drain was spilled all over the front and side of his house which stands approximately 20 feet high.
When the Guyana Chronicle visited the scene yesterday the man was seen washing down his house and a small shop which is also located in the yard. He had earlier fixed a bridge that the car had also damaged.
Over at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station the residents were complaining bitterly that despite the driver of the car crying out for chest pains the police refused to allow the man to seek medical attention. The residents said that they showed up at approximately 00: 01 hr yesterday morning at the police station but were locked out of the compound by a female police officer.
Yesterday efforts to get information from the police who was the other occupant of the car were futile. And late yesterday this publication was informed that the driver was placed on bail but no one was willing to disclose how much bail the man was placed on.