By Shirley Thomas

INJURED in a motor vehicle collision at the junction of David and Alexander Streets, Kitty, on Sunday last, four-month-old Jonique Abrams remains warded at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), being treated for a fractured skull and lacerations to the body, according to her tearful mother Svetlana Marshall.

The mother remained riveted to her child’s bedside yesterday afternoon, holding tightly to the infant’s hand as she prayed for her perfect recovery. Marshall said the child’s lung has also been affected, but that injury is nothing significant. She is hoping to be re-united with her baby at home in the near future.

RECAP
The accident happened shortly before 15:00 hrs on Sunday, when motor car PTT 4022 driven by the baby’s father, Jude Abrams of Zes Kenderen, and PNN 3404, driven by a person who gave his name as Mervin Moses of Alexander Street, Kitty, collided.

Jude Abrams, his four-month-old baby, Jonique and the child’s aunt, Lena Moore, were all injured and had to be rushed to hospital. Mervin Moses reportedly escaped unhurt.

At time of the accident, Jonique was in a baby’s contraption strapped in the back seat of the car, with her father’s sister at her side. Jude Abrams sustained injuries to his head, two fractured ribs, and a dislocated shoulder. Lena Moore was flung out of the car on impact, and had to be treated for lacerations about the body. Baby Jonique was expected to be operated on late yesterday, Marshall said.

Marshall, who owns the car, hurried to the scene on learning of the collision. She has expressed disappointment at the way the police handled the matter, both at the scene of the accident and at the Kitty Police Station. She is now calling on the police to discharge their duties in a professional and responsible manner.

Marshall opined that the ranks seemed more interested in their colleague, who was apparently the driver of the other motor car, while showing no interest whatever in the baby, who had suffered a fractured skull.

“Imagine, my child suffering a fractured skull and the police, instead of looking in my child’s direction, were busy asking their colleague if he’s working today,” she told this reporter. She is grateful to public-spirited persons who came on the scene and helped to dispatch her injured family to hospital.

Lena Moore (the baby’s aunt) recalled that as their car proceeded west along David Street, her brother reached Alexander Street and slowed down, looking left; looking right; then looked left again before proceeding. “Then, all of a sudden, this car came from nowhere and crashed into the left side of Jude’s car. The baby was on the back seat along with me. She was on the left, I was on the right, and the car just hit the back of our car; and by the time I could have shouted out for Jude, I was out of the car.”

She recalled that she began shouting, “The baby! The baby and my brother!” She and the baby were picked up by some women and placed in a jeep that had just driven up, and they were taken to the hospital. She recalls that her brother was temporarily unconscious in the car, but was later taken to hospital.

Moore claims the police, in doing their investigation, were attempting to “mix her up,” which she considers an insult to her intelligence.

Meanwhile, witnesses say Jude Abrams, who was driving PTT 4022 at a moderate speed, had just crossed two speed humps in the vicinity of a school on David Street, and was moving off again when he was struck by PNN 3404. On impact, the car flipped several times before turning turtle.

Abrams maintains he was driving straight west along David Street; at no time did he turn, nor was he preparing to turn into David Street when he was hit by the other car.