By Shirley Thomas

A 52-year-old father of seven, who was partially pinned under a vehicle in an accident at Chateau Margot on Easter Monday night, has had his left arm amputated, even as the errant motorist continues to dodge the police.
The victim, Anthony Seals, personal driver to the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland, remains warded at the Surgical Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital. He recently related the harrowing experience to the Guyana Chronicle.
Seals, who lives at Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara, recalled that on Easter Sunday he left his home to transport two elderly women to a village on the West Bank of Demerara, using their family vehicle, a left-hand-drive Ford pick-up. They arrived at their destination around 16:30hrs, and he remained with them throughout the afternoon, setting out for home on the East Coast of Demerara around 19:00hrs.
Seals recalled that he was driving at a moderate speed of about 30mph and when they were in the vicinity of Chateau Margot, he spotted a silver-grey 212 Toyota motorcar proceeding in the opposite direction, and darting in and out of traffic as it tried to overtake another motor vehicle.
“Then, all of a sudden, the driver approaching me overtook the other vehicle. But his timing was bad, and he misjudged, and came into my path,” Seals said. The man’s car slammed into Seals’s pick-up, lashing his front right wheel out.
At that point, the vehicle toppled and ended on its left side, pinning Seals’s left hand to the ground.
With the help of civic-minded persons on the scene, he was rescued from under the pick-up and taken to hospital in a police vehicle that was driving by around the same time.
He recalls that the other driver appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.The rescuers also pulled him out of his car and braced him up in a corner. But all attention was turned to Seals, who was badly injured and bleeding, and the other motorist seized the opportunity to slip away from the scene.

‘OUT OF THE BLUE’
But what shocked everyone, Seals said, was when a woman appeared “from out of the blue” and told the police that she was driving the car when the accident happened. Seals surmised that her reason for doing so was that the driver was probably unlicensed, or wanted to escape being subjected to a breathalyzer test.
One of the women in Seals’s car accompanied him to the GPHC in the police vehicle, while the other went to the Beterverwagting Police Station to give a statement. She later revealed to Seals that the woman who took responsibility for the accident was charged, and placed on bail.
Seals said that at the Accident and Emergency Unit, he observed that his hand was so badly crushed, that only three of his fingers could move. But despite the best efforts of the doctors, the arm had to be amputated at the elbow.
He has so far had about four medical procedures in theatre, including skin grafts, and is preparing for a fifth.
The injured man said that on one occasion, persons connected to the man who caused the accident visited him in hospital, but all they seemed concerned about was finding out if the insurance for the car he was driving was in order and other information about the vehicle.
“They showed absolutely no interest in me or my amputation,” he said.
Referring to his inability to work to provide for his seven children, the injured man became very emotional, but conceded that he was lucky that God had spared his life and he gave thanks.