FORMER City Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton has expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which ranks at the Vigilance Police Station have handled the initial investigations into an accident in which her car slammed into a parked pick-up on Monday night.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle at the Vigilance Police Station yesterday morning, after making a return visit to the police traffic department, Ms Hamilton said that on Monday night she ended up slamming her car into a parked vehicle after another car that was heading in the opposite direction appeared to be heading for a head-on collision with her.

“I was going east and, on both sides of the road there were parked vehicles encroaching on my side and the other (so the road became narrow to vehicles travelling in opposite directions). A car overtook (another) and was coming to me, so my reflex action was to turn to my left; and when I turned to my left, I touched the vehicle,”
the now attorney-at-law explained.

She said that immediately after the accident, popular businessman Buddy Shivraj emerged from a drinking spot and gave her the impression that the vehicle was his, and there were a lot of persons who began hurling all sorts of remarks at her, including that someone should call ‘Carl Singh’, the acting Chancellor of the Judiciary.

Ms Hamilton said she admitted hitting the vehicle, but explained how the accident was occasioned, and even offered to have the vehicle fixed. She said the police arrived on the scene after a while, and talk emerged that she should be subjected to a breathalyzer test, to which she agreed.

Ms. Hamilton said she was then taken to the Vigilance Police Station to have the test done, but that did not happen because there was no testing kit at the station. She said she was then advised that she needed to go to Georgetown to have the test done.

She said she was taken to Brickdam Police Station, then to Kingston (Eve Leary), and again to Brickdam Police Station, but was still not tested, as the kits were not available.

“They had me gallivanting all over the place! I am very disappointed with how they dealt with these issues. (They) can’t be pushing people around like that!” the attorney stressed.

Asked if she had been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, or if she had had any alcohol in her system then, the former magistrate responded in the negative. She said she has been making moves to have both the vehicle that she had hit and her own vehicle fixed.

Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud, commenting yesterday on the absence of the testing kits at the station, and moreso in the division, said the Force is now embarking on a campaign to concentrate the kits in specific areas at specific times. He said, however, that in event an accident should occur, persons are taken to the nearest location where the kits are available.

On Monday night, former magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton crashed her Aventis motor car into a parked Hilux open back pick-up, causing minimal damage to the vehicle but extensive damage to hers. Claims mysteriously began surfacing that she had been heavily intoxicated at the time of the accident.

(Leroy Smith)