SIXTY–FOUR-YEAR-OLD, Brian Aubrey Anthony Devine, injured in the New Year’s morning accident on Cemetery Road that claimed the life of sixty-one-year-old George Barker, remains warded at the Accident Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where he is recovering slowly but still listed as critical.Devine, who along with Barker had gone to buy newspapers at a news stand on Cemetery Road, was rammed from behind by an out-of-control motor car, PNN 7977, a Toyota AT 192, and ended up being badly injured and lying in a nearby drain.

His injuries include broken ribs on the left rib cage; compound fractures to both of his legs; head and spinal injuries; injuries to his left side jaw; left ear and left eye. Since then, he has been taken off oxygen and is breathing on his own.
He is however to be subjected to further Computed Tomography (CT) scans, and requires another eight units of blood in preparation for further surgeries.
The Lot 30 Cockrite Street, East La Penitence resident related to the Sunday Chronicle that he and his friend, George Baker had gone to the newspaper stand on Cemetery Road to buy the daily newspapers, where they met a young woman who said she was asked to sell papers in the absence of the vendor who had gone to the market. She explained that she had forgotten to collect the keys to open up the stand, and asked them to wait while she went to get the keys.
Devine said he and his friend Baker were ‘gaffing’ as they waited when suddenly they heard a noise and looked around to see a motor car approaching at a terrific speed. It hit a road hump next to a nursery school, and came plummeting towards them. Impulsively, Baker pushed Devine out of the way, or he would have been killed instantly; but the car toppled and came back towards them.
While occasionally still writhing in pains, Devine remains grateful to this day to his now departed friend, Baker, for having pushed him out of the way of the fast moving motor car.
Vividly recalling the scenario on the morning of January 1, 2015, Devine related to the Guyana Chronicle: “If you see how this man (the motorist) turn … like if is a war going on … I tell you, he got to be a mad man.”
Devine said he was rammed from behind and was hit really hard. He likened it to literally “a nightmare at dawn.” The vehicle hurled him through the air, and he landed in a nearby drain, he recalled, but his friend Baker ended up trapped under the vehicle.
Even though Baker was able to initially communicate with rescuers and give the police his name, he succumbed before arriving at the hospital.
Having suffered compound fractures to the legs, bleeding from the eyes and other broken bones, he was initially given a blood transfusion, but now requires more blood.
Through it all, Brian Aubrey Anthony Devine asserts, “But ah lucky to be alive!” He is giving God thanks and praises, and also thanks to his rescuers and the medical staff at the GPHC.

(By Shirley Thomas)