By Shabna Ullah and
Adrian Smith
The last of the 12 victims to be identified in the grisly No. 19 Village, Corentyne crash had been on the way to visit his son at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Chetram Ramphal, 37, later ended up in the hospital’s mortuary.
According to Rohanie Ramphal, her brother left home on Friday to take “clothes and other things” to the New Amsterdam Hospital for his son, who was hospitalized. She told Stabroek News that when it was getting late on Friday evening and her brother did not show, his wife came over to check if he was there. Since he does not have a cell phone they called the hospital. They then called a friend who told them that “he must be still at deh hospital”. So they called someone whom they know, and lives close to the hospital. This family friend called and enquired, but the nurse told that no one brought anything for the child. During all this time the family was unaware of the accident. After further enquiry the nurse asked them to describe the person. This they did and said that he was wearing “a soldier pants”. The nurse then told them that he was involved in an accident and that they should visit the hospital. When they saw Ramphal, his sister said that “he only had some blood on he hand, and no more scratch or anything”. Chetram has five children, one daughter and four sons.
The body of another victim involved in the accident at Suzannah, No 19 Village, Corentyne around 3.40 pm on Friday had earlier been identified as Nazarudeen Mahinudin, 19, called Nazro of 40 Betsy Ground, Canje.
Mahinudin was one of 12 persons who perished in the horrific smash-up involving a truck, GLL 8863 and a minibus, BHH 1842. Many of the bodies were badly mangled and some limbs were severed.
Five persons survived the crash and received treatment at the New Amsterdam Hospital (NAH) and one was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Police said yesterday that driver of the truck, Chetram Moonsammy of Johanna, Black Bush Polder, along with his two porters fled the scene and later reported to the Whim Police Station. They are still in custody.
Mahinudin’s mother, Waheeda told Stabroek News yesterday that her son, an employee of Nand Persaud International Communi-cation was returning home from work when he met his demise.
She said he was pursuing an auto-electrical course at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute from Mondays to Thursdays. When he did not return home early that day she was not worried because she felt it was one of the days for his classes.
Around 8 pm she heard about the accident and immediately became concerned. She kept calling his cell phone but could not get through.
She, along with her husband, Alimoudin hurried over to the New Amsterdam Hospital but they were unable to see the body which had already been removed to the Arokium Funeral Home.
They were sure it was him though, based on the description of his clothes provided by a nurse. Early yesterday morning they returned to the funeral home and identified the body. He was the second of four siblings.
The persons who perished were bus driver Odit Narine Babulall, 33, of No.48 Village; two month-old Josiah Khan; the child’s mother Talita Mendonza, 21, of Kildonan; Cindy Jaggernauth, 37 of Nigg, Corentyne; Marques Ault, 13, of Rose Hall; Salmaa Razac, 23, of Main Street, Cumberland; Patricia Asgarally, 28, of Albion; Orlando De Mattos, 35, of Manchester; Salina Juman, 46, of Burn Bush Dam, Canje; and Janet ‘Pearly’ Baker, 44, of Warren, No. 19 Village, Coren-tyne. One other person was still to be identified.
Franklin Baker, 48, also of Warren said his sister Janet ‘Pearly’ Baker, 44, joined the bus at 3.30 pm to go to work at Lucky House Restaurant in New Amsterdam. He said just after picking up his sister the bus dropped off two schoolchildren. It crashed less than half a
mile away from her home.
His wife, Liloutie, was supposed to join the same bus to see her niece at the NAH. However, she was delayed after Franklin came home from work and asked her to fix him a snack.
Another brother, Martin told him he heard there was a serious accident and he hurried to the scene but by then his sister’s body along with others had already been taken to the mortuary at the NAH and he did not even know she was involved.
He related that two more bodies were lying on the public road and the police vehicle took them to the mortuary. After that onlookers noticed clothing in the trench and then two other bodies, one of which it was suspected was that of Salmaa Razac, was pulled out. After 7 pm his niece dialled Janet’s number and a man answered and when she asked what he was “doing with the phone” he responded that the person to whom the phone belonged to had been involved in an accident. He and other relatives then headed to the mortuary and identified her body.
The survivors are Cindy’s husband, Sham ‘Chubby’ Jaggernauth, 40, also of Nigg, Corentyne; Tamika Fraser, 24, of Kildonan; Nicola Ross, 18, of Tain and wife of the minibus driver, Anwhatie ‘Debbie’ Singh, 33, also of No. 48 Village, who was the conductress of the bus. Feona Singh, 14, of No. 11 Village, Corentyne and a student of the Corentyne Comprehensive Secon-dary has been transferred to the GPH.
At Albion Front on the Coren-tyne, Tyrone Sangster, the husband of 30-year-old Patricia Asgarally, told Stabroek News that he heard about the accident minutes after it happened, but did not think that his wife was involved. But after she did not come home from work, the Ophthalmology Centre at Port Mourant, he dialled her cell phone and a strange voice answered.
A woman at the other end of the line identified herself as a nurse from the NAH and told him that his wife had been involved in an accident and that he should visit the hospital.
Her body was badly battered, her head was bleeding and arms seemed broken. She has left her three sons, Darrien, Aaron, and Brian to mourn.
The bus driver’s wife, Anwhatie Singh told this newspaper from her hospital bed yesterday that all she could recall was that the truck was overtaking another vehicle and drove straight into the bus. She suffered cuts to her right ear and was feeling pain in her hands. Fraser of the East Coast of Demerara who was also hospitalized was discharged yesterday.
Stabroek News spoke with Anita, an aunt of 14-year-old Fiona ‘Lisa’ Paramsook, at No.11 Village, who said the girl was still at the GPH and was vomiting blood. She suffered a broken shoulder, broken left leg and cuts about her face. Fiona told them that the bus was driving slowly and the truck came from “nowhere and run into the bus.”
The woman related that when they got to the scene of the accident on Friday, and saw the remains of the baby they wept as they felt that the child did not deserve to die in that manner. Forty-year-old Sham Jaggernauth, a survivor, of Lot 5 ‘C’ Nigg Public Road, Corentyne told this newspaper that he was treated for minor bruises and sent home. He said he and his wife, Cindy Jaggernauth caught the bus at Nigg and he got into the front seat while his wife sat next to the conductress.
In the vicinity of the Future Line Restaurant it started to rain. He said he saw a truck, coming towards them, overtaking a car and “before you could blink he slam into we.” He could not remember what happened next but when he regained consciousness he was out of the bus, lying on the corner of the road. He said he turned and saw his wife, Cindy Jaggernauth, lying next to
him, but she was not moving. He tried to wake her up but she would not get up so he started to scream and realized that even that didn’t wake her.
Asked whether the driver of the minibus was speeding, he said, “the man deh going slow, slow.” He said that even though he was glad to be alive he did not know how he will be able to go on without his wife, as they had been together for some 18 years.
Reports are that the truck reportedly veered suddenly into the path of the bus, resulting in the collision.
An eyewitness had claimed that one of the vehicles reportedly suffered a blow-out but the police were unable to confirm this. The driver’s side of the minibus was torn off completely from the front to the back. There was blood everywhere in the bus. Some persons were difficult to identify as their faces were badly disfigured.
