SHORTLY after 11:00hrs yesterday morning, the driver of container reportedly lost control of the mechanical behemoth and collided with two route 44 minibuses at the Coldingen Turn on the East Coast of Demerara. Fourteen persons who were travelling in the two buses sustained varying degrees of injury. Among those critical at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation are minibus driver Nazim Misie, 38, of Newtown, Enmore, East Coast Demerara, whose bus was the first to be involved in the accident. Both his legs were broken, and when this medium visited him at the GPHC, doctors were relating his medical prognosis to his close relatives.

Scores of persons gathered outside the GPHC as news of the accident spread, and some of the persons being treated were seen being taken away from the hospital by their families.

The damaged hauler truck was still at the scene of the accident when the Chronicle arrived, its front damaged and its steering connection hanging from its cab. A nearby fruit vendor, Yogesh Paul, told this newspaper that he was backing the traffic at his stall while attending to a customer, when he heard the loud bang of the collision; and he left to go render assistance at the accident scene, where he witnessed persons struggling to exit the minibus, having suffered broken hands and fingers, and a child about three years old was also involved in the accident.

Paul explained that a number of the passengers whom he had assisted were seriously injured, and some had sustained broken bones.

Paul said the bus driver had to be assisted by other persons to exit the crashed vehicle, and he observed that both of the driver’s legs were severely damaged.

Efforts to get information from the police at the Vigilance Police Station and the Divisional Traffic office proved futile.