POLICE Lance Corporal Jerron Clarke of the Tactical Services Unit reportedly lost control of his car at about 3:30hrs on Saturday, and it crashed in front of a mosque at West Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara (WCD).

Subsequent to that accident, a relative of Clarke’s who was heading to the Georgetown Public Hospital to visit the injured rank also lost control of his vehicle, causing it to topple three times before crashing to a halt.

Reports revealed that Lance Corporal Clarke was driving his Toyota Primo at a fast rate heading home to Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo when he drove his vehicle onto the “crush and run” where the road is being constructed and the accident occurred.

Other persons were in the vehicle with him. Francisco Andrews, 36, also of Tuschen, was treated and sent away from the Leonora Cottage Hospital; but Jummo Petty, 32, of Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara and Clarke were rushed by ambulance to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), where they were admitted because of their injuries.

The policeman’s brother-in-law and sister, Ryan and Amanda Hyman of Lot 14 Uitvlugt, WCD, heard of the accident and were proceeding to visit him at the GPHC when, in the vicinity of Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara, Ryan also lost control of his car on the “crush and run” on the roadway.

Reports reveal that Hyman’s vehicle toppled three times before crashing to a stop. He and his wife were not seriously injured, but their vehicle was totally destroyed, with the roof being flattened. They were both taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where they were treated and sent away.

Residents of the West Coast Demerara communities of West Meten-Meer-Zorg and Uitvlugt were disappointed that the accidents had occurred. They noted that the Traffic Chief had issued a warning to the contractor to place the necessary reflectors and signs on the roadway.

“In some sections of the road, the entire piece with ‘crush and run’ is left opened. Those parts are supposed to be closed, because people keep losing their lives. Just the other day in Blankenburg, another driver lost his two children because of the same problem,” one resident lamented.

“But like the Traffic Chief and other senior police word don’t have weight with these contractors? Somebody needs to be jailed!” another said.

In that Blankenburg accident, Mark Halley and his common-law wife Michelle Francis lost their two children: two-year-old Marvin Halley and seven-year-old Tina Francis.
Halley was taking his family for a drive when, at a section of the Blankenburg Public Road that is presently under construction, he lost control of the vehicle and crashed same into two others before it landed in a nearby drain.

Following the accident which claimed the lives of the two siblings on the Blankenburg Public Road, Traffic Chief Dion Moore had advised the contractor who is presently rehabilitating the roadway to place thereon reflectors and adequate reflectorized materials, along with information signs, warning signs, and command signs to guide road users so they can get to their destinations safely.