Drunk teen driver dies in crash

A drunk teenage boy died on Friday night after crashing his friend’s car, which he had taken without the friend’s knowledge or consent, early Friday morning to visit his girlfriend at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.

Ryan Britton, 17, of Lot 167 Da Silva Street, Newtown, was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital around 06:00 hrs on Friday

Ryan Britton
Ryan Britton

after the vehicle he was driving, HC 1916, crashed into the iron rail of a bridge on the Railway Embankment Road at Mon Repos.

Britton would have turned 18 years old on December 27.

Geeta Muniram, the boy’s aunt, was distraught when Stabroek News visited his home yesterday. “Right now we are trying to put everything together… We didn’t even know that this accident happen,” she said, adding that she was told her nephew was drinking a lot on Thursday night at a party.

She said that everyone in the house started to get uneasy when he didn’t return home on Thursday night. “We called his phone several times but he wasn’t answering it… Is till late last night [Friday night] we hear that he was in the accident,” she said.

“When we go to the hospital there was no record of him but when the unknown list was checked… then we know it was he and then everything changed,” she cried.

Muniram said that Britton’s parents reside overseas. “I told his mother that he was critical and in the ICU… We had a little hope that he would live but he was in too bad of a condition,” she said. “She was breaking down so much when we Skype her…”

According a police press release, Britton succumbed to his injuries around 21:00 hrs on Friday.

It also indicated that he was not licensed to drive a hire car and investigations were progress.