Friends die in fiery crash

Friends to the very end; Satyanand Singh, called Sachin, and Wajeed Shaw died together early yesterday morning when the car they were in smashed into a concrete culvert at Little Diamond, East Bank Demerara.

According to a police press release, about 12.15 am yesterday Singh was driving his motor car PJJ 8627 along the Prospect, East Bank  Public Road, with Shaw in the passenger seat, when it is alleged that he lost control of the vehicle and collided with a concrete culvert. As a result of the impact, the release said, the vehicle caught afire and the two occupants were trapped inside resulting in their deaths.

A view of the scorched remains of the car
A view of the scorched remains of the car
Singh of Triumph, East Coast Demerara, according to friends, had left a wedding reception on the East Bank presumably to drop Shaw home at Thirteenth Street, Diamond New Housing Scheme  just after midnight. Both 22-year-old men, who worked at the Luxury Barber Shop, had consumed some amount of alcohol, sources say.

When this newspaper visited the homes of Singh  and Shaw yesterday afternoon both families were still in shock from the tragedy. Shaw’s  younger brother said that they had learnt of the accident when a reporter showed up at their doorstep.

Singh’s mother told this newspaper that she was at home when she got the news and rushed over to see if it was true.

Satyanand Singh
Satyanand Singh
Wajeed Shaw
Wajeed Shaw
The woman said that her son was wearing a gold band and chain together worth about $420,000 and she did not see it on his body. She further explained that she went to the funeral home but they refused to let her see the body.

During the last journey of their lives, the car driven by Singh  crashed  into the rail of the concrete culvert  at Little Diamond smashing a section of it to pieces. After colliding with the rail the car came to a halt on the road facing west. Up to 6 am yesterday morning the gear box and other parts of the car were still strewn on the road.

When Stabroek News visited the scene of the accident later yesterday morning the charred, smashed shell of the car had been moved to the side of the road. There was a noticeable blackened area on the road where the vehicle had been while ablaze.

“I saw a …hand hanging out the driver door window and then I hear a hoarse voice saying “Help, help me” but I couldn’t do nothing because of the fire,” Vijai, a resident of the area, said.

Vijai lives  on the East Bank Public Road just in front the area where the accident occurred. He explained that it was approximately 12.30 am when he was awakened by “a loud noise” and rushed to his front door to see what happened.

The man said that the first thing he saw was that the car was on fire and he immediately rushed out to help but could do nothing because of the fire that was already beginning to engulf the vehicle. Vijai said that he was standing in his yard, approximately 25 feet away from the car, and could feel the intense heat from the blaze.

“I didn’t know a vehicle could burn that fast,” Vijai’s sister-in-law told this newspaper.
The woman said that within the 30 minutes it took the fire service to arrive at the scene the vehicle had  been totally consumed by flames.

Vijai said that both Singh and Shaw were pinned inside the vehicle. According to him and another resident, Shaw was already dead. His lifeless body, they said, could be seen slumped forward in the passenger’s seat. Singh, they recounted, was trying to open the car door but couldn’t.

The blaze was so intense  that residents living off the main road saw the flames and thought a house was on fire.

One man said that while the car did not explode, at intervals “pops” could be heard as the vehicle burnt.

Residents said that if the heat was not so intense and Singh’s  leg was not pinned in the vehicle then they might have been able to save him. In a vain effort to douse the fire residents had formed a bucket brigade. The firemen arriving shortly after 1 am managed to extinguish the flames.

It was the sight of a charred vehicle with the remains of her son inside that met Singh’s mother and other family members when they arrived at the scene of the accident. Vijai said the woman asked him repeatedly: “Y’all couldn’t save meh son? None ah y’all couldn’t save meh son?”

“It hurt me to know that I couldn’t help he,” Vijai said. He further explained that after the flames engulfed the vehicle and Singh was no longer visible some residents walked away because they could not bear the sight. The man said that Singh was burnt to death.

This newspaper was told that the particular culvert was narrow and many accidents occurred in that area. Residents said that the accident which killed the men was one of four which occurred between Monday and yesterday morning.

According to them, on Monday there were two accidents prior to the fatal smash-up and one afterwards. They said that after the flames had been doused from Singh’s  car another vehicle speeding along the same stretch of road, smashed into the burnt-out car and sent it spinning across the road.

It was further observed that two men were in this vehicle and they both appeared to be drunk.

The driver of this vehicle subsequently escaped but the passenger is still in police custody.

The culvert is located just after the last street in Prospect and at the beginning of Little Diamond. Residents from both areas pointed out that the area has poor lighting and  the one street light closest to the culvert is not working. One man, who is also a driver, pointed out that the culvert area is so narrow that two vehicles cannot pass there simultaneously.