Written by Shirley Thomas
VARSHANIE Seelall succumbed to her injuries on Sunday night while on life support in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC).

This four-year-old had suffered severe brain injuries and multiple fractures when a Tundra SUV collided with the car in which she and other family members were travelling on the Cotton Tree Public Road, West Coast Berbice  two Sundays ago at about 21:30 hrs.

Varshanie’s death has brought to a sordid anti-climax exactly one week of unrelenting efforts to save her life by doctors at the institution. She never regained consciousness following the accident, and her condition declined rapidly from mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Her relatives are inconsolable.
Four other persons were injured in that accident, and it is generally claimed that that tragedy had been caused by  the driver of Tundra, GKK 8834, who was reportedly  driving while being inebriated.
Little Varshanie bore the brunt of the injuries of the five persons injured in that smash-up. Others injured from the family car were: Varshanie’s mother, Shamwattie Sunilall, 29, also called ‘Jeanita’ and also of Cotton Tree, WCB; driver of the vehicle, Hardat Singh, 45; his wife Drupattie Seelall, 36; Devi Shivnandan and  Mellisa Singh, 9 – all of Rosignol.

The occupants of Varshanie’s family car suffered multiple injuries, mostly sustained to the eyes, and had to be treated at the Balwant Singh Hospital in Georgetown. The driver of their car, PMM 8599, cannot now see out of his right eye, and is expected to travel to Trinidad and Tobago for specialised surgical intervention.

Ironically, PMM 8599 had made it safely all the way from the East Coast Demerara; the accident happened just about one minute’s drive away from their home at Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice.
The supposedly errant driver of the Tundra is reported to have escaped unhurt, but did nothing to help the persons injured in the accident.
Even as they mourn the death of their innocent beloved, family members are raging over the course of action taken by both the errant Tundra driver, whom they claim was under the influence of alcohol when he caused the accident; and the Guyana Police Force (GPF), whom they  say has failed to do what was expected of them following the accident.

They claim that the police never took measurements when they arrived at the scene of the accident that night, nor made markings to guide investigators in determining the cause of the accident or where it occurred.
Varshanie’s relatives claim that driver of route 42 minibus BKK 2476, which arrived on the scene within minutes of the accident, hurriedly picked up the driver of the Tundra, who failed to render assistance to the injured persons, and sped away, claiming they were taking him to Fort Wellington Hospital.
Even though residents learnt that the man was never dropped off at the hospital, the Seelall family said they learnt that the person who drove the minibus away from the scene was a policeman.
The police never visited little Varshanie while she had been on life support machines in the ICU section of the GPHC, nor did they visit her other injured relatives to take statements from them. Nevertheless, the police were said to have later arrested two Muslim brothers who were at the scene of the accident for rendering assistance to the injured. The men were told their arrest was in connection with the alleged disappearance of $8M from the Tundra.  They were kept in custody at Fort Wellington Police Station until Tuesday afternoon, then removed to the Blairmont Police Station before being released and asked to return to court on Monday, September 30, at 9:00 hrs.
Varshanie’s irate family members recounted that, after the accident, the Tundra driver got out of his vehicle looking momentarily dazed, then sat down and began puffing cigarettes even as Shamwattie screamed and held her bleeding and almost lifeless infant daughter in her hands, exclaiming that she was dead. Family members and other villagers had to help get a vehicle and transport the injured to hospital, because the Tundra driver had already been removed from the scene of the accident.
Residents recall seeing the Tundra driver leaving the scene of the accident with an attaché case and a pulley (carry-on bag) in his possession. Aboard the bus which had taken away the Tundra driver was a slim young man who carried a haversack on his back.
As the bus was in process of moving off, Seelall’s family members had asked the police if they were not going to take measurements at the scene of the accident, but the police officials had allegedly told the residents to get the car (which was positioned across the road) out of the way, asking the residents if they were attempting to tell the police how to do their work. And so no measurements were taken, and the civilians had to place road markings at the scene of the accident, the Seelalls claim.
Meanwhile, Dewlatram Seelall, the owner of the car driven by Hardat Singh at the time of the accident, went to the Blairmont Police Station of Tuesday, September 24, to make a report about the accident. He said Traffic Officer in Charge Mr. Thomas refused to take the report from him, saying he wanted to see the driver of the car.
Even though injured and unable to see out of his right eye, on returning to Berbice from the Balwant Singh Hospital on Thursday, Hardat Singh went to the Blairmont Police Station, but was held and placed on $20,000 bail.
Shrewd investigations by the Seelall family members led to the discovery that the driver of the Tundra had never been treated at Fort Wellington Hospital following the collision at Cotton Tree last Sunday night.
Relatives of the injured persons are calling for justice to be served, and for the police to perform their duties in a professional manner.