JOSEPH Lester Fitzpatrick, also known as “Palace” and “Patrick”, was killed on the Golden Grove public road, East Coast Demerara on Sunday night, after a speeding car driven by a 19-year-old rounded a corner and hit the 58-year-old father of 17, who was riding his pedal cycle in a westerly direction, heading to his home at Lot 19 President’s College Road, ECD.

One eyewitness told the Guyana Chronicle that the impact of the collision flung the hapless Fitzpatrick into a nearby yard, while the car slammed into a woman’s parked vehicle before coming to a halt on a rock which was on the shoulder of the road.
Mere seconds before the tragedy, the female vehicle owner had closed her shop and was about to head to her car when she heard the loud explosion; she soon realized that her stationary car was involved in an accident.
After realizing that a man had been hit in the accident, persons who rushed to the scene began looking for him on the expanse of the road and in the nearby trenches, beaming torchlights in a desperate effort to find the man.
They were able to locate the man only after his groans led them to where he lay. His body had several broken bones, and he was in terrible pain. He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), but succumbed to his injuries.
It is unclear whether the teen was a licensed driver, but a police source confirmed that he had tested positive for alcohol consumption beyond the legal limit.
The dead Fitzpatrick had been engaged as caretaker of a property and family business located on President’s College Road, Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara.
Persons who had known him described him as having been a very loving individual in every sense of the word. They consider his death a real shocker, and were convinced that he had not, in any way, been influenced by alcohol when he met his tragic demise on Sunday night. One woman said she would have preferred to know that the man had succumbed to some sickness, rather than to have met such an untimely death.
When this publication visited the home of the man’s sister, Ms Ann Anderson, at Lot 17 Bee Hive, East Coast Demerara, she was devastated at the death of her brother. She said she had not been aware of the tragic accident involving her brother, and learnt of it only early yesterday morning.
She said that she, her daughter and a sister had rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday morning, and had unsuccessfully searched the Accident and Emergency Unit for their brother.
While she could not muster the fortitude to view the remains of her brother, her other sister and her daughter had been able to positively identify his body.
She said that from speaking with doctors and viewing the body, they were able to confirm that the man had suffered several broken bones as a result of the accident.
Fitzpatrick’s children and grandchildren live in several parts of the country.
In a related development yesterday, the Chronicle was informed that relatives of the teenage driver have been approaching the late Fitzpatrick’s family, attempting to have them accept compensation for his death.
The Police C Division Traffic Department are reportedly investigating this accident.