Early morning Better Hope accident claims one life

An early morning collision between two vehicles yesterday left one driver dead and the other injured and a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).

Ravi Singh aka Munard Ramsaroop

According to a police press release, the accident occurred around 03:55 hrs on the Vryheid’s Lust Public Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and resulted in the death of Ravi Singh, 31, of Montrose, ECD. Singh, who also went by the name Munard Ramsaroop and was called ‘Roger’ or ‘Blacks’, was pronounced dead on arrival at the GPH.

Investigations revealed that Ravi Singh was driving motor car PLL 9680 when he lost control of the vehicle and collided with motor van PFF 2416 which was proceeding in the opposite direction. Khemraj Singh, 46, of Buxton Sideline Dam, ECD was driving PFF 2416, the release added.

At the home of Ravi Singh, his aunt whom he lived with said, as she swung in her hammock, “It’s really hard to explain how he nice and now he not here anymore.” According to the woman, her nephew was married but his wife and other relatives reside overseas.

The bus Khemraj Singh was driving at the time of the accident. (Tarick Pertab photo)

Ravi had been living with her and her husband for nearly a year. She said he sometimes worked as a taxi driver and had borrowed her husband’s car on Friday to visit relatives who had returned from overseas. He was on his way back home when the accident occurred.

“A neighbour up the road called me and he ask me if my car number is PLL 9680 and I told him yes. He said the car met with an accident and the driver dead,” Radika, the aunt, remembers the call. It was around 6.30 in the morning.

“Losing someone is not easy. It’s really hard,” she sadly said. She was being consoled by neighbours when she spoke to this newspaper. Her nephew was described as a quiet and very friendly person.

The car Ravi Singh was driving at the time of the accident. (Tarick Pertab photo)

Meanwhile, the driver of the motor van, Khemraj Singh, was in the operating room when this newspaper visited the hospital yesterday and was subsequently admitted to the hospital. According to one of the five persons who were in the vehicle, Khemraj Singh sustained a broken leg. Shanti Persaud, 32, of Vigilance, ECD said she and the other four passengers were “going to buy fish”.

Persaud sat in the waiting room of the Accident and Emergency Unit around 09:30 hrs yesterday in a blue dress and with a swollen bloody mouth. She was still awaiting treatment. Her left leg, she said, was fractured. It was bandaged and swollen. Deep grazes that showed bone in some cases were visible on her leg which was also splattered with dried blood.

She recalled that she was in the front seat of the bus next to the driver and that it was around four in the morning when the accident occurred in the vicinity of Better Hope. “All I see was a light and nothing more. I jus remember being in the hospital,” she said.

Persaud’s fellow passenger, Manaj Singh, 45, of Martyrsville EDC was also injured.