Dear Editor,
“Killed on the spot last night when a lumber truck attempting to avoid stray cows on the Bee Hive Public Road, East Coast Demerara, crashed into a route number 44 minibus transporting passengers from Georgetown en route to Mahaica.”
I am a villager that has been living in this village over a lot of years and what I saw there that night was nothing new. The road is not a safe place. The speed from vehicles affects one’s life a great deal. The straying animals are another big issue that affects everyone. That truck trying to avoid hitting the stray animals on the road crashed.
The truck was not a sand truck, it had been transporting lumber to Unity and was heading back home after the delivery of lumber and the minibus driver was heading home after dropping his wife to work at the hospital where she is a nurse. The family members who arrived some time later were people who knew the driver and called his family and they began to push and tug to get people out and there were screams and moans of horrors. As for the police when we called they had only one thing to say on the phone, “accident again”. Another minibus assisted in taking the injured to the public hospital.
The family of the driver of the truck returned early next day to try to pull out the truck. The only thing left on the road was the name of the bus Sheron Ride, which was a top bus in Mahaica and was owned by 40-year-old Desmond Datterdeen of Lot 340 Helena Number Two. He was a good man as we all know, he will be missed dearly. As the police gave their permission for the truck to be taken away the villagers of Bee-Hive First Street marked the pole with a black flag as the day went by.
Yours faithfully,
Shabena Kadir
