THREE young men aboard a burgundy Toyota Fielder wagon on Sunday evening escaped death and any visible injuries when the driver lost control in the vicinity of Rahaman’s Park on the East Bank Demerara and the vehicle toppled.The vehicle, PMM 6282, was reportedly travelling north along the East Bank roadway in the vicinity of Rahaman’s Park when it flipped several times before turning turtle, forcing the occupants to crawl to safety.
The Guyana Chronicle was informed that the young men were drinking at a nightspot further up the East Bank and were heading to another bar in the city when the accident occurred.
After the crash and the youths crawled to safety, they quickly returned to the vehicle to remove bottles of rum and beer.
When standing, the men appeared to find it difficult to maintain their balance. However, they hurriedly got rid of the evidence that they were imbibing at the time of the accident.
This newspaper observed the men dumping alcohol into a nearby trench along with the registration plate of the vehicle, which other persons had encouraged them to rip off.
Other items were placed into another car along with one of the crash survivors and that ‘rescue’ vehicle left the scene.
When the police arrived on the scene two of the young men were still trying to remove valuables from the crashed car. After it was observed that the police had arrived on the scene in an unmarked vehicle, persons forced the driver of the car into another vehicle and left the scene but the third young man remained.
That young man was pointed out to the police and he was taken into custody. They were also able to recover the registration plate and a bottle of rum from the trench where the young men had discarded the items.
From all indications the vehicle appeared to have been in a workshop and might have been removed to facilitate the lads’ mobility as they went on a drinking spree.
Meanwhile, despite the alarming number of road fatalities on account of speeding and driving under the influence, there were a number of persons who converged on the scene and wasted no time in trying to get the seemingly intoxicated young men away. Attempts to have the car towed away before the police arrived was also very glaring, as one security guard from the area stated.
After the car was turned back on its wheels, there was an attempt by one of the occupants to drive the car off of a mount where it came to rest. When he failed another person who had stopped to render assistance attempted to move the car but aborted this when the vehicle began smoking.