Terror does not begin to describe what a female city constable felt yesterday afternoon as a route 42 minibus sped off with her hanging onto its side for dear life.
Minutes before, the driver of BMM 2063 – an off-duty cop – had verbally and physically assaulted Patricia Depeazer, 47, as she attempted to execute her duty. He has since been arrested and remained in police custody up to press time.
Sometime around 2 pm, Depeazer said, she approached a minibus which was illegally parked on Brickdam (between Cornhill and Water streets). There are four no-parking signs in that area, Depeazer said.
This area is where the minibus parks are located and is busy throughout the day, she explained.
The minibus, the city constable recalled, had a conductress and she later learnt that the woman was not licensed. As she attempted to arrest the conductress, Depeazer said, the driver of the vehicle left his seat and confronted her.
Depeazer said that she later learnt that the driver is the husband of the unlicensed conductress. The man, whom she identified as a “black clothes policeman”, began verbally abusing her, pushed her and then shoved the sliding passenger door of the vehicle.
The man, she further alleged, then returned to his seat and “pulled off”. It was then, Depeazer said, the minibus door came rushing the rest of the way, slammed against her right leg and her skirt was caught.
“I couldn’t do anything then,” Depeazer said. “I had to grab on as best as I could to the side of that bus and pray that my grip didn’t slip because I woulda end up on the road and under that bus.”
The driver, according to her, sped off down Brickdam and took the first right. It was not until the vehicle approached the Linden minibus park located around that corner that Depeazer managed to shout out to some policemen in uniform. It was then that the driver stopped the vehicle.
“All the time that man knew that I was hanging on to the outside of his bus,” Depeazer stated.
She sustained a deep wound to the right leg around the knee area. Depeazer was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC). When Stabroek News visited the medical institution shortly after 6 pm a relative said that the injured woman had just gone into the trauma room for treatment.
“We’ve been waiting here for hours and hours and if you see the nonsense that has been going on,” the relatives said.
When Stabroek News spoke with Depeazer just after 7 pm at the X-ray department of the hospital she said that she was in much pain and her wound required “several stitches”.
During her 16-year career in city policing, the woman told Stabroek News, she had never been through such an ordeal. Executing her duty in the minibus park area is very difficult most days. Many minibus drivers, she said, have no regard for the law and it is difficult to get to them to comply with traffic regulations.
