Suriname accident
Relatives of the three persons who were killed Friday in an accident in Suriname, were yesterday preparing to have the bodies brought home.
Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Insurance (GTM) officer Monique Lynch, 41, her fiancé Rubris Guyana employee Asa Montana Sauers, 31, and Guyana Police Force Finance Secretary Andrea Isaacs perished when the Sports Utility Vehicle in which they were travelling skidded off the Oost-West Highway, at Nickerie and plunged into a canal. The vehicle which belonged to Monique Lynch turned turtle in the canal and many expressed the view that the trio may have drowned.
The lone survivor, veteran educator and former principal of the North Ruimveldt Secondary School, Vilma King Lynch who is the stepmother of Monique, was one of the four persons in the vehicle at the time of the accident. She sustained minor physical injuries and is currently hospitalized in Suriname. Police said she was in a state of shock and “could not provide the authorities with credible information.”
According to Surinamese police reports, the car allegedly took a swing to the right-hand side of the road and eventually toppled into the canal. Sources indicate that the party of four arrived on Friday afternoon in South Drain aboard the Canawaima Ferry and were on their way to Paramaribo.
It was Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell who confirmed to Stabroek News that the accident had taken place and said that one of the employees of his force had died also. He expressed sadness at the passing of the young woman whom he said he knew well.
Stabroek News visited the home of Isaacs’ mother Lorna on Friday evening and broke the news of her daughter’s demise. The news stunned the elderly woman who told of wishing her only female child a safe trip earlier Friday morning. She informed that the young woman was on vacation and left with her friend Monique for the neighbouring Dutch country. Andrea’s only daughter Louanne was also shaken as she told of her mother leaving for Suriname.
Yesterday at the home of Monique Lynch her mother Josephine Collins was struggling to cope with the death of her only child. She told Stabroek News that the last time she saw the 41-year-old woman was on Thursday evening when she left to overnight at her stepmother’s South Ruimveldt residence. She received a call some time around 6.30 pm on Friday from a relative of her daughter’s stepmother informing her of the accident. Since then she said she had not had any sleep as every time she closes her eyes memories of her daughter rush back to her and she is left in sorrow. “I try to get sleep but I can’t; every time I am falling off in a doze I jump back up because I keep thinking of her… different things,” she said. She fondly remembered her daughter as a person who had a passion for cooking and who was always generous to the persons around her.
The woman said that her grandson, Monique’s only child, Collin Lynch, had left for Suriname to make arrangements to have his mother’s remains brought home.
Asa Sauers’ family was yesterday at his parents’ Kuru Kuru home making preparations for their journey to Suriname to retrieve the young man’s body. His uncle Lionel said that they were discussing documents needed before persons travelled to collect the body. His employers at the Timerhi Rubis station at which he last worked said that they were trying to make contact with his relatives since they only heard of his death yesterday morning.
