Six persons were injured when a coconut tree fell into the path of a passing minibus at Phoenix Estate, West Berbice around 6.15 pm yesterday causing the driver to lose control and slam into a telephone pole.
The six were rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital where they were treated and immediately transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The driver of the bus, BKK 5907, Roland “Cabby” Angus, 29, of Number 30 Village, was pinned to his seat and bystanders had to force open the door with pieces of wood to rescue him. Wayne Fraser, 27, of Seafield, the conductor, jumped out of the window after the bus came to a halt and was the first to be taken to the hospital.
The injured passengers are Felecia Ceres, 18; Datsie Ceres, 56 and Natasha Glasgow, 15 of Plantation Ross, West Berbice and Beryl Barker, 56, of Glasgow, East Berbice.
An eyewitness, Esmond Patram said he and five relatives were sitting on a bench in front of the relatives’ shop when the coconut tree suddenly fell into the path of the minibus.
He said they sensed danger and scrambled to safety just before the bus slammed into the pole and sent it crashing onto his parked Land Rover, PBB 2865. The bus then smashed into the concrete shop, causing the gate in front of the house to collapse on impact.
Yvette Hart, who was also sitting on the bench, said that as she ran, clutching a four-month-old baby, she fell in the process and suffered bruises to her hands and knees and fractured her left thumb. But luckily she managed to lift the baby out of harm’s way.
The gate broke at the same time her 67-year-old mother, Kate Hart was passing and it hit her in the chest.
Fraser told Stabroek News that by the time he saw the tree falling it was too late and all he could say to the driver was: “Wha happen dey Cabby?”
Meanwhile, persons are calling for the “old coconut trees” along West Berbice that are “too close to the road” to be to be removed.
