-girl, 4, killed in Sheriff Street smash-up

By Rabindra Rooplall
A TWO-VEHICLE collision at the corner of Garnett and Sheriff Streets in Campbellville, Georgetown on Saturday at about 22:00hrs resulted in 4-year-old Abiola Providence of Newtown, Kitty being propelled through the windscreen of motor car PMM 1426 and losing her life on the roadway.

Reports indicate that Providence and two of her relatives were in the back seat of the vehicle as it proceeded south on Sheriff Street; and as the car stopped at the centre of the junction preparatory to turning west, motor vehicle GPP 3500, which was proceeding north, collided with the left of the car, resulting in the infant being flung through the window and onto the roadway.

Rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her two relatives, Abiola Trotman and Cheryl Williams, received injuries and have been admitted as patients at the GPHC. The condition of each is regarded as stable. Derrick Bailey, driver of PMM 1426, was unhurt, but is in police custody.

The driver of GPP 3500, reportedly 19 years old, is a patient at Woodlands Hospital. A breathalyzer test has determined that the alcohol content in his breath was above the legal limit.

Police say an investigation is being conducted on how he had received a driver’s licence for a van.

Derrick Bailey told the Guyana Chronicle in an interview that he and the occupants of his car had visited the Royal Castle outlet on Sheriff Street to get something to eat. “I reverse and come back, and a white car was in front of me and the light to turn was saying green. I don’t know if the other driver was watching the countdown on the traffic light, but he was blazing coming; so when the light said turn, the white car in front of me move and I turn. So by the time I barely turn out, this man didn’t mash brakes or nothing to indicate that he would stop,” Bailey explained.

He added: “When this man slam into me, he pitched the car into a nearby yard. I kicked open the door, (and) when I look, I didn’t see the little child or her mother; but the grandmother was in the back seat.”

He recalled that Saturday was the child’s grandmother’s birthday and two vehicles with relatives had visited the Giftland Mall; and they decided to visit Royal Castle to have something to eat.

Bailey said the mother and the child were pitched through the car window when the pickup slammed into his vehicle. The mother was seated in front, while the child was in the rear.