Dear Editor,
I am Randy Balram, a cousin of Sharda Singh and uncle to Deanna Ramjit. I was there at the Abary Creek when they drowned.
The way the incident unfolded was that there were 12 people on the boat. We had understood that Michael would operate the boat, but it was Satish who did so. We thought the boat was supposed to be a paddleboat, but there was an engine on it. The front of the boat dipped down after Satish revved the engine, and after the front went down the boat was flooded with water and my wife (Diana Balram) and Carol Ramjit were the first two in the water.
We saw everyone start to go down with Diana and Carol, and shouted for Satish to stop the engine, which he did. In a panic Michael, Dewan Ramjit, Vijay Ramjit and Narvin Balkaran (aka Calf), all jumped into the water to swim out to get people.
Satish’s daughter was taken out with the group that Diana and Carol were part of. Only the women and children were taken out by us.
This boat was never part of our original plans. Going to Jumbo Jet’s place was never part of our plans.
The second to last person to be found was Sharda Singh, on whom we performed CPR and got her breathing again before she left the Abary Creek to go to the New Amsterdam hospital. Lyn Balram was the last out of the water because as she tried to push the kids to the shore she was floating away at the same time. She also tried as much as possible to keep Sharda’s head above the water.
After everyone was out of the water I drove my aunt Tara Mattai and Diana Balram to a house on Happy Bulla’s Ranch where there were four men there. One with a phone called Carlton, as I recall, allowed Tara to use the phone but told her there was no use in calling for help. Carlton told two of his workers to go with me back to the creek to see if they could help to recover the bodies. As I drove them to the creek Tara and Diana stayed at the house and kept trying to get in contact with 911 and family members.
After dropping the guys to help with the rescue I drove back to the house with another phone which belonged to Narvin (Calf).
My aunt told me that 911 said they were going to call her back and she said that she told them to send a helicopter and a rescue team and she would pay for it, but just to send someone out now. We then called Narain Ramjit’s house and had them try to contact 911, and we called Sharda’s sister – my cousin Lica Balkaran – to call 911, and she tried also. There were so many people trying to call and get help but nothing happened.
Members from Guysuco were there first, along with Paul George and his guys, I remember, and then a family friend Kenny (driver of the ‘Legend’ minibus), who was way out of the area but was able to make it there before the police.
In response to the Kaieteur News article ‘Investigation into inefficient 911 service underway – Commissioner Greene’ – what’s the sense of investigation? Ask anyone in Guyana and they will tell you that the police there are no help. Guyana is not going to change; it’s been over 10 years since I went back to Guyana. What’s the sense in having more street light when you still have blackouts every night? What’s the sense in having smooth nice roads when you have cows, sheep, goats, dogs, donkeys, etc, running wild?
Changes need to be made at the top level, as my Uncle told me before all of this happened.
In Guyana they don’t care how you live, they just want to know how you died.
Sick very sick, I feel bad for my own people there that they have to punish because of a system that they pay into and have no word or power to control.
Yours faithfully,
Randy Balram
