A COLLISION on Monday between two Route 63 minibuses (New Amsterdam to Crabwood Creek) at Wellington Park, Corentyne, Berbice, claimed the life of Vidwattie Persaud, called Bedoo, 43, a mother of three of Number 43 Village Corentyne.The accident, which occurred in the vicinity of Wellington Park Primary School, left three persons, including a baby, hospitalised.

Persaud was travelling to Rose Hall Town, a few miles away, where she was expected to make a deposit at a bank, but unfortunately she did not make it.

Her sister Meenwattie reported that the monies were missing along with personal documents.
Meanwhile, Adisha Khedaroo, 24, of Brighton Village, who is a patient at the New Amsterdam hospital, recalled being seated behind the conductor in minibus BRR 6403. She too was travelling to Rose Hall Town to purchase school items for one of her daughters, Emily, who was scheduled to go on a school tour on Friday. Khedaroo said she was breastfeeding her one-year-old daughter, Philonena, when she felt the collision.
As a result of the impact, she and her baby were thrown through the window and they landed under the very vehicle.
The baby, she said, sustained injuries to the face, eyes and head, and was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), while she remained a patient at the Berbice Regional Hospital for attention to a fractured shoulder and injuries to the right side face and head.
The accident victim lamented from her hospital bed that persons who came to their assistance stole $11,500, along with personal documents belonging to herself and husband.
Meanwhile, the other hospitalised persons are the driver of BSS 2229, Trellon Archibald, 30, of Number 53 Village, and Dhanwattie Sahid, 52, of Number 71 Village, who was transferred to the GPHC.
According to investigations, minibus BRR 6403 which is owned and driven by forty-one- year-old Ghirdial Heralall of Number 59 Village was proceeding west along the Wellington Park Public Road when the driver swerved to the right in order to allow a passenger to disembark.
However, the driver of BSS 2229 on seeing this manoeuvre applied brakes in an effort to avoid a collision, but the speed at which he was reportedly travelling caused him to collide with the left front side of the other minibus.
At his hospital bedside, driver Trellon Archibald confirmed that he was behind the wheel of BSS 2229, however, a relative prevented him from offering any further information to the media.
But, an eyewitness, twenty-one-year-old Inzaman Hussain of Wellington Park, said the accident occurred as a result of speeding.
Hussain explained to the Berbice media that the blue and white minibus, BSS 2229, was heading towards New Amsterdam but took a detour after a passenger, who is employed at Wellington Primary School, requested that the vehicle take her over to the other side of the road.

Hussain noted that while BSS 2229 was returning to its original lane, a speeding navy blue bus, BRR 6403, travelling in the opposite direction collided with it.
The eyewitness opined that as the navy blue bus overtook a truck, the driver may have been unable to see the approaching bus, which at the time was moving across the road.
Hussain recalled that as the driver of the navy blue bus saw the other bus in the process of crossing the road, he applied brakes but it was too late and the collision occurred.
“As the buses collided the navy blue bus slammed into the left side of the light blue bus, causing the upper part of Persaud’s body to be flung through the window of the bus,” the eyewitness said.
Meanwhile, when the Berbice media spoke to the dead woman’s 21-year-old son, Vishnu Persaud, he said that his mother had left home Monday morning to go to the Rose Hall Town Branch Republic Bank.
He explained that, around noon while he was “in the backdam” he received a call from his sister who told him that their mother was involved in an accident.
When they arrived on the scene the family was told that the ambulance had rushed his mother and other injured passengers to the Port Mourant hospital. However, when they got there, they were informed that his mother was transferred to the New Amsterdam hospital. The grieving son lamented that upon arriving at the New Amsterdam Hospital they learnt that his mother was in the X-ray room. Soon after, doctors at the New Amsterdam hospital rushed her to the GPHC, but she succumbed on her way in the vicinity of Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara.
The deceased mother leaves to mourn her husband, two daughters and a son, along with her siblings and other relatives and friends.
Investigations are continuing.