A popular Linden businessman was pronounced dead at the Linden Hospital Complex one hour after he was fished from the Demerara River in the vicinity of the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge yesterday.
Collis Mentis was found in his 4×4 Tundra vehicle which had plunged off the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge shortly after 8 am yesterday. According to reports,
he was still breathing and still had a pulse at the time he was removed from the vehicle, which had been submerged for some three hours.
The Tundra was salvaged from the Demerara River by a large crane that is owned by the Bosai Bauxite Mining Company and Mentis was then removed from the cab of the vehicle and rushed by boat to the nearby Linden Hospital Complex.
People rushed to the medical facility and crowded the outpatients’ area where medical staff fought frantically to keep Mentis alive, one hour later he was pronounced dead.
Earlier, hundreds of curious onlookers had converged on the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge and its environs, including the nearby sandy river bank after word circulated that a Tundra had plunged off the bridge, breaking an area of its northern protective metal barrier about halfway the length of the half-mile long bridge.
Some residents of West Watooka, the community that is closest to the bridge on the west bank of the river, quickly got into a couple of small canoes and joined a few policemen from the river section in their small boat.
Four divers intermittently submerged themselves in the water, tying salvage lines to the Tundra and attaching them to a large truck on the river bank. But after more than two hours had passed the exercise seemed futile. It was then that a large Bosai crane was trundled onto the bridge and the vehicle was successfully raised out of the water around 11.10 am.
Mentis was said to be in his mid-30s. Popularly known as “Tom”, he was a wholesale beverage distributor. It was said that he had attended an ‘All White Party’ the previous evening and had probably gone to drop off a friend on the west bank of Linden.
Mentis, who lived at Fairs Rust in south Mackenzie, was apparently on his way home when he lost control of the vehicle, which plunged into the river.
His mother was among grieving relatives at the hospital when Mentis was pronounced dead. She lives in the USA and comes home every Christmas to be with her only son. When she was approached by the media she said she was not disposed to speaking at the time. Meanwhile, Mentis’ pregnant wife was admitted to hospital for observation.
A close friend of the deceased, Talbot Layne, who arrived from Maryland, USA, said that he spoke to Mentis the previous day.
Layne said he had brought some things for Mentis from his father, who also lives in Maryland and he had promised to deliver them yesterday.
