A sign painter yesterday afternoon cheated death when he was miraculously pulled out alive, but with serious injuries, from under a truck which had crashed into the signboard he was designing at the National Cultural Centre.
Rodwell Bess is now a patient in the High Dependency Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital. Bess, 30, of Middle Road, La Penitence has a sign painting business on Orange Walk Bourda.
According to Bess’ friend, who is employed at the National Cultural Centre and who requested anonymity, he witnessed the accident. The man said that Bess was painting a sign for an upcoming show at the Cultural Centre when the truck, GMM 2111, with a trailer of logs, lost control as it was speeding North on Mandela Avenue and slammed into Bess even as he worked.
The driver, he said, exited the vehicle and escaped without rendering any assistance to the pinned man. “He was painting a sign up there and the truck like he lose control or something because he just in the same speed he coming with run off the road and into the man…same speed the driver jump out and gone helter-skelter up the road” an eyewitness said.
Persons rushed to Bess’ assistance and managed to pull him out from under the vehicle and took him to the GPHC.
When Stabroek News arrived at the hospital the sign painter was being examined by emergency room doctors. He was then whisked away, in an unconscious state and with oxygen and IVs being given, to another section to be X-rayed. He sustained injuries to his head, which was swollen, legs and bruises and lacerations to his body.
An employee of the National Cultural Centre stated that he was the one who took him to the hospital and expressed anger that the truck driver had fled the scene. “He so cruel he run away. I want find him because the headlines for this story would be different” the man said.
The injured man’s younger sister, Kezia Bess, who was very emotional, stated that they received word that he was injured sometime after 3pm yesterday.
She, relatives and friends went to the GPHC as they anxiously awaited word on his condition. Olivia (only name given)a close friend of the family informed that Bess’s wife, popular nail technician Akeisha Bess, had only recently died and that he was still struggling to cope with her demise. For this accident to now happen they said would only put him in more distress.
Up to late last evening police sources said that the driver had not yet been apprehended. The man’s relatives however said that he had regained consciousness and was alert. He had no broken bones nor were they informed of any internal injuries.
