Twenty nine persons, including fourteen nursery and primary school aged children, were injured in an accident involving three mini-buses on the West Coast Berbice Highway at Rising Sun Village Thursday morning.

Of the fourteen children, six were transferred from the Mahaicony Hospital to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), with one of them in a critical condition.

The remaining fifteen adults and eight children were treated for minor injuries but were kept at the Mahaicony Hospital for an eight hour period of observation before being discharged. The children and teachers involved in the accident are all pupils of the Treasures Primary Academy located at Golden Fleece, West Coast Berbice.

They were being transported to the school, which is located a mile west of the accident scene, at the time of the accident. According to eyewitness reports, the bus with the children and teachers of the school, was parked on the southern side of the road, when a mini-bus, traveling west, attempted to overtake another vehicle, however the driver came into contact with the front right side of the vehicle.

The impact caused the overtaking minibus to topple onto its side, it then skidded and hit the parked school bus, causing it to also topple and skid off the parapet. The scene was near chaotic as public spirited persons desperately tried to free the children, who included toddlers and the adults trapped inside.

They managed to extract the victims, many of them bleeding, crying loudly in pain and rushed them to the Mahaicony Cottage Hospital. The drivers of the three vehicles are assisting the police in their investigations.

Meanwhile, Regional Executive Officer, Ovid Morrison, who visited the hospital, said that the nurses and medical staff did well in providing assistance to the victims.

“The Regional Health Officer, Dr Steven Cheefoon was there and I must say that the hospital staff did extremely well in treating the many injured persons in a professional manner despite the distractions presented by scores of parents and relatives who turned up at the hospital in understandably extreme state of anxiety on hearing news of the accident,” he said.