PLANS for 19-year-old Leroy Mendonca of Mabaruma,North West District (NWD) to take up a job working at sea two Sundays ago, went awry one day before, when on Saturday afternoon he became involved in a horrific accident on the Parika Public Road, East Bank Essequibo.

In the process, he suffered a fractured right arm and leg, severe cuts to his head and face and multiple abrasions to his rib cage. And now, folks are wondering whether it was an act of grave misfortune that he was involved in the accident, or whether it might have saved him from greater disaster which might have been in store for him, had he gone out to sea.

Mendonca, who had travelled from the NWD one month ago to take up employment, has been residing temporarily at Uitvlugt. Last Saturday he visited a friend at Parika and was walking along the roadway with the friend, after having had “a few drinks.”

He recalled that around 18:30 hrs, a speeding minibus was trying to overtake a motor car on the road when it ploughed into him. He was hurled into the air and landed prostrate on the road, badly injured.

The victim was picked up by the driver of the minibus and taken o hospital. Mendonca is currently warded at the Georgetown Public Hospital and is expected to return to theatre for surgery to implant steel in his arm and leg, which were badly crushed.

Mendonca, who hails from Thomas Hill, Mabaruma, is the youngest of six siblings. He gives his mother’s name as Millicent Williams of Mabaruma.

(By Shirley Thomas)