… Family was returning from airport trip
A WOMAN, who was returning home after escorting her sister to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, died on the spot after the car in which she was travelling crashed into a parked truck on the Number 58 Public Road, Corentyne early Monday morning.
Dead is 52-year-old Soorojnie Suraj called ‘Pammie’, a sales clerk of Mary’s Gas Station and of Grant 1506, Crabwood Creek, Corentyne. Her mother Khemnie Suraj, 70 and her young daughter Neha Sukhra, 15, were the two other passengers. They sustained serious injuries as well as the 25- year driver of the car, Avinash Premnauth.
They were all rushed to the Skeldon Hospital before being transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of the vehicle while navigating a turn on the Number 58 Village Public Road. At the time of the accident it was raining heavily and there were several vehicles parked on the parapet of the road.
Meanwhile, according to an eyewitness Rajin Sasenaden 36, he was in the bus shed a short distance away when he heard the impact and as he looked out noticed a crashed car crossway on the road and heard people screaming.
He explained he hurriedly rushed to scene and assisted the injured. “I run up to the car and hear the screaming they were three persons in the backseat and I take out the young girl and others came to help and take out the old lady then we realised the other lady in the back was dead. She wasn’t moving and had a big cut on her head.”
Based on the eyewitness account the Suraj was sitting in the middle of the back seat and died as a result of the middle of the car caving in after making contact with the tray of the truck.
The witness further related if there was anyone sitting in the front passenger’s seat they too may have died as the left of the vehicle bore the brunt of the impact.
According to reports at approximately 06:45hrs yesterday, the car, a silver Toyota Spacio bearing registration HC 2217 was heading towards Crabwood Creek after returning from the airport when the driver allegedly lost control while navigating a turn at Number 58 Village and slammed into a parked lorry, pushing it several metres forward.
The lorry, bearing licence plate GMM 9207 and registered to Narine Dindial of Number 45 Village then slammed into another parked lorry also pushing it several metres as a result of the impact.
The relatives of the deceased said they learnt of the accident after they received a call from their niece immediately after the accident and rushed to the scene. “The little girl call and say come quick Mommy nah look nice and Grandma bleeding out. When I hear that I get crazy and take me a while to understand. When I reach I see my sister dead in the backseat.”
According to relatives, Neha who was the only child for Soorojnie and her husband was treated and sent home a little after noon and it was only then that she was made aware of her mother’s fate. Her grandmother and mother of the deceased is unaware that her daughter lost her life in the accident. She remains hospitalised nursing a shattered leg.
Relatives indicated they could not relate the dreadful news of her daughter’s death as she suffers from hypertension and diabetes and given her age she may not have the willpower to recover from the ordeal.
“She is sickly from before and Pammie is the one who takes care of her. She just wanted to go to see her other daughter off this is the worst thing ever for this family.” Another relative said they had to delay the message to her daughter, who kept asking for her mother and only told her when she returned home and saw the tent and preparations for the wake.
The driver of the car, an auto mechanic/electrician and a close family friend of the Suraj family, remains hospitalised and is said to be complaining of abdominal pains. Police are investigating the accident.
