– remembers husband as a risk-taker and ambitious father

By Telesha Ramnarine

THE wife of the late 33-year-old Dillon De Ramos, Mrs. Abi Sam De Ramos, said she was overseas when she got the news of her husband’s death on Tuesday and initially refused to believe it.

Mrs De Ramos was at the Florida US Immigration Office on Wednesday morning in the process of applying for approval to travel to Guyana, when she spoke with the Guyana Chronicle.

De Ramos, of Lot 85 Dennis Street, Campbellville and Senior Superintendent, Brian Eastman of 15 Norton Street, Wortmanville, said to be best friends since high school, died in an accident at Sophia Public Road, in the vicinity of Rubis Gas Station, Tuesday night.
Police said De Ramos was the driver of PTT 6775 when the accident occurred. He reportedly lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a concrete fence. Reports suggest he died on the spot. Eastman was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

De Ramos’ wife recalled that the last time she spoke with her husband was on Tuesday morning when she was busy caring for their son who needed therapy. “I had to take our seven-year-old to therapy in Orlando, so I was busy for most of the day with the driving back and forth. Our seven-year-old son is autistic,” she related.

Abi said she was already in bed with her son when she saw that one of her husband’s friends from New York kept calling her phone. “I eventually answered and he asked me to check my messages. When I called Dillon’s phone, a stranger answered and told me he died. I didn’t believe that, so I called two of our managers to tell me what was really going on.”

Reflecting on the qualities she loved most about her husband, Abi said: “He was a risk-taker; he liked to push the envelope. He was the life of the party. Our boys loved him. When he was around, they had no time with me. He was a great partner and husband. My husband was an amazing man.”

In just a matter of four months, De Ramos said she and her husband would have celebrated nine years of their marriage. “We met, fell in love, and got married 17 days after meeting. And that’s exactly how he did everything. If he saw something he wanted, he went after it with all he had.”

BRILLIANT AND DEDICATED
Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) said it is mourning the death of Superintendent Eastman and conveyed condolences to his family, relatives and friends. The GPF described Eastman as a very brilliant and dedicated officer with great potential who made significant contributions towards the development of the organisation.

In a statement to the press, the GPF said investigations revealed that the vehicle was proceeding west along the southern side of the road, reportedly at a fast rate, when the driver lost control of the said vehicle. It careened off the southern side of the road and collided with a concrete fence. As a result of the collision, the GPF said both driver and occupant received injuries to their heads and other parts of their bodies.

This fatal accident came one day after there were several others over the past weekend and also when the country is observing Road Safety Week. At the end of October, some 85 persons, among them six children, had been killed in road accidents for 2019 – an increase, when compared to the deaths recorded in 2018, Coordinator of the National Road Safety Council, Ramona Doergen, disclosed recently, even as she called for an end to the reckless use of the country’s roads.

According to the Guyana Police Force, the leading causes of traffic mishaps in the country are speeding and driving while under the influence of alcohol. Other major causes are driving while distracted by use of a cellphone, pedestrian inattentiveness, and failure to heed traffic signs and warnings.

Though there are established speed limits across the country – 50 km/h in the towns and along sections of the East Bank Demerara (EBD) corridor – Doergen said some drivers are in the habit of exceeding the speed limits, thereby putting their lives and the lives of others at risk. Speaking directly to drivers, through the online platform, Doorgen pleaded with them to drive within the speed limits.