Senior policeman’s son dead, others critical
–unlicensed driver plays blame-game
TWENTY-seven-year-old Dias Trotz, son of Senior Superintendent Owen Trotz, Acting Commander of the Police ‘C’ Division, East Coast Demerara, was involved in an accident between a minibus and a pickup at 58 Miles Mabura, yesterday, at approximately 07:00hrs. He died while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The scene of the accident is an approximate two-and-a-half-hour drive from Linden.
Speaking with Acting Commander Trotz last evening before his son passed away, he told this publication that his son was in critical condition and was not likely to survive.
Efforts to contact family members of the other injured persons were futile, as they were busy gathering information about their loved ones’ condition.

The mangled vehicles following the accident (Photos by Freddie Narine)

Doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital were up to press time battling to save the lives of at least three other persons — Leroy Floyd of Linden, who suffered injuries to the head and limbs; Ephraim Parris, driver of the minibus, who

Some of the injured as they were being transferred from the Linden Hospital to Georgetown: Left is Leroy Floyd; centre is the minibus driver, Ephraim Parris, and right is Trevor Trotz (Photos by Joe Chapman in Linden)

suffered injuries to his head; and Anthony Parris, who also had injuries to his head and limbs.
Speaking with Guyana Chronicle from her Linden home last evening, a relative of bus driver Ephraim Parris said that from all indications and reports received, her relative was driving on his side of the road when the pickup came around the turn on the path the minibus was using. The pickup driver was a youngster whom, she was reliably informed, was not a licensed driver. When the accident occurred, he and his equally young passenger attempted to cover up the facts by pretending that the vehicle was not driven by him but by the passenger, a licensed driver.

The woman told this publication that her relative is 37 years old, and is the father of nine children, all of whom are still attending school.
The injured began arriving at the Linden Hospital Complex at approximately 10:00hrs yesterday, and were immediately rushed into the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital. When the seriously injured were stabilized, they were transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Reports are that the minibus, BMM 7746, was heading around a turn at 58 Miles Mabura when it collided with an open back pickup, GMM 5690, which was heading in the opposite direction. Both vehicles were said to have been speeding at the time.