By Zoisa Fraser
A 39-year-old taxi driver who was on his way home from the airport early yesterday morning was killed instantly on the Supply Public Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD) when his vehicle collided head on with a minibus.
Three of the passengers from the minibus who were among those proceeding to a Land of Canaan masjid for early morning prayers are currently hospitalized, one in a critical condition.
Dead is Carlton Lynch of Lot 10 Paradise Village, East Coast Demerara. He sustained serious injuries to his head, foot and other parts of the body and arrived at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) a little over an hour after the accident.
Driver of the minibus, Hassan Insanally, 49, and passenger Abdool Razak, 63, both of Garden of Eden, EBD are patients of the GPHC. Razack was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) late yesterday afternoon after undergoing surgery and a CT scan. He is unconscious and on a life support machine.
Up to early last evening, Insanally was still in the operating room where medical staffers were tending to his broken legs and the injuries he sustained to his head and ribs.
This newspaper understands that a third passenger of the minibus, Hazrat Ally is a patient of the Diamond Diagnostic Centre but would soon be transferred to GPHC.
Police said in a press release that investigations revealed that Lynch was driving motor car HB 2268, proceeding towards Georgetown, when his vehicle allegedly strayed into the path of minibus PDD 8880 which was proceeding in the opposite direction resulting in a collision.
The minibus, the police said, was driven by Hassan Insanally while Hazrat Ally; Yunis Insanally, 15 years; Yusuf Baksh, 42 years, and Razack, 63 years, were passengers.
Further, the release said, Insanally, Ally and Razack were admitted patients of the Diamond Hospital (two were subsequently transferred to GPHC for additional medical care), while the teenager and Baksh were treated and sent away.
Lynch was taken to the GPHC where he was pronounced dead on arrival, the release added.
When Stabroek News visited the dead man’s home around noon, relatives and friends had gathered and his distraught wife, Yonette was being comforted.
His sister-in-law Shivon Glasgow while recalling how pleasant a person he was said that a sister called her and told her that Lynch was involved in an accident. However while she was making her way down to the Georgetown Hospital, she received a second call informing her that he had passed away.
Glasgow said that from the information she received he died on the spot and when she saw his remains he had serious head injuries.
According to the woman, he left home around 3:15 am to collect a passenger to go to the airport but tragedy struck as he was returning home. She said that Lynch who has an 18-year-old daughter was a taxi driver for about seven years, mostly operating outside the GPHC.
“He is not a wild person. He always driving with precaution,” she said.
Meanwhile the taxi drivers operating outside the hospital were in mourning and had already nailed a piece of black cloth to a utility post in the area where Lynch worked. Several of the drivers who this newspaper spoke with described him as a wonderful and good man and they expressed shock at his passing.
Critical
Many relatives and friends of Insanally and Razack flocked the hospital awaiting word on their condition. Expressions of worry and tears marked the faces of some of Razack’s relatives. He is said to be in a critical condition and is on a life support machine. Razack’s daughter Bibi told Stabroek News that he doesn’t look good since she was told that he has serious internal and head injuries. According to her one of his eyes is blue, blood had to be pumped out of his lungs and his liver is damaged.
The woman with distress evident in her face said that he had one surgery but was taken for a brain scan to determine if anything else could be done for him. She said that he is unconscious and cannot breathe on his own.
Bibi explained that her father and about six others were on their way to a masjid at Land of Canaan to pray, adding that her father would usually leave around 4:15 every morning with his other Muslim brothers.
She said that she was told that the men saw a light ahead of them shortly before the collision. Razack’s relatives say that they are hoping and praying that he pulls through safely.
Meanwhile, a relative of Insanally told this newspaper that they have not yet received word on his condition from the doctors but he understands that he is in a stable condition. This newspaper was told that he arrived at the medical institution in a conscious state.
