A young businessman barely managed to escape serious injuries when a speeding pick-up truck crashed into his store at De Willem, West Coast Demerara around 5:15 pm on Saturday.
Nandkumar Bahadur told Stabroek News that he was sitting in front of the store with his six-year-old son when he noticed the Toyota Hilux, GKK 6800 coming towards them.
He grabbed his son and ran but they fell in the process and hurt themselves. A worker was also hurt while trying to run.
The vehicle first slammed into a utility pole which then crashed into a shed under which he had displayed items from the store.
The shed collapsed to the ground and some of the items including school bags, mats and clothing were scattered on the ground and got damaged.
At the scene, the badly shaken businessman told the driver of the pick-up and his relatives that all he wanted was for them to repair his shed so that his business could get going again.
Bahadur told Stabroek News that had the vehicle not crashed into the post “it woulda run straight in the store and all awe coulda dead.”
He was disappointed that even though he was traumatized from his near-death experience the driver’s relatives were raising their voices and intimidating him at the scene.
According to him, the driver attempted to overtake a vehicle but pulled in because of oncoming traffic. He then tried to undertake when the accident occurred.
This newspaper attempted to speak to the driver but he declined to comment. He is claiming though that he lost control of the vehicle after his “brakes failed him.”
Bahadur is pleading with the Minister of Public Security to “do something about the speeding…”
