– as minibus takes trench to avoid head-on collision

A LOCAL minibus taking several Guyanese to the Surinamese capital, Paramaribo yesterday ploughed into a trench in Nickerie, some 20 minutes from the Canawaima Ferry Service depot in South Drain.

According to 22-year-old Mohan Ganpat, one of the passengers, the accident occurred around 11:30h when the minibus driver swerved to avoid a head-on collision with a canter truck coming from the opposite direction in the same lane.

Said the youngster, “It would have been a head-on collision if the driver didn’t swerve into the trench, and people would have ended up seriously hurt or dead.”

Though injured, the driver of the minibus, who is Guyanese, reportedly tried as best he could to help his passengers, among them a Chinese woman and her child, to safety, while the driver of the canter fled the scene.

In a video posted by a Surinamese reporter, passengers could be heard screaming in agony, while others, among them two children, were seen covered in mud as they scrambled to safety.

According to reports, injuries ranges from serious to minor, with some passengers suffering broken limbs, cut and bruises, or complaining of severe pain.

Gunpat told the Guyana Chronicle that he and his father, Totaram Gunpat were on their way to Paramaribo on a two-day trip when the mishap occurred.

What he’s, however, grateful for is that everyone is alive, and that no one suffered any life-threatening injuries. He’s nursing a broken hand, while his dad is complaining of pain in the abdomen and elsewhere.

He recalled that among the first persons to come to their rescue were Surinamese police and immigration officers, while passersby stopped and rendered whatever assistance they could.

He said that the paramedics subsequently arrived and took the injured to a nearby hospital.

Ganpat said many of his fellow passengers cannot help but commend the minibus driver, whose name has been given as Donald, for his quick thinking, as had he not done what he did, there’s no telling what would have happened.

Luckily, too, they said, Donald knows the road like the back of his hand, as he has been doing this route frequently.