Two young men died, while another is now hospitalised in a critical condition after the car they were travelling in crashed along the Bagotstown Public Road on Sunday night.
Dead are Courtney Marcus, 19, of Lot 11 Peter’s Hall, East Bank Demerara, and Ronaldo Simmons, 20, of Lot 15 Azore Street, Peter’s Hall. The other occupant of the vehicle, Steven Roberts, 29, of Lot 387 McDavid Street, Republic Park, East Bank Demerara, is hospitalised and is said to be in a critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospi-tal Corporation (GPHC).
Surveillance footage from near the accident site indicates that the crash occurred at 9.43 PM.
According to a police statement, the car that the young men were travelling in was proceeding south along the eastern lane of Bagotstown Public Road, allegedly at a fast rate, when the front of the vehicle collided with the concrete median. The location has been the scene of about three similar accidents over the past few years.
As a result of the impact, the vehicle careened into a concrete fence on the eastern side of the road and came to a halt after slamming into a utility pole.
The three youths, who were unconscious, were removed from the wreckage and rushed to the Diamond Hospital, where Marcus and Simmons were pronounced dead on arri-val. Roberts, however, was transferred to the George-town Public Hospital.
Police have identified Roberts as the driver of the vehicle.
However relatives are skeptical since there are reports that Marcus was the one in control of the car at the time of the accident.
At Marcus’ home, his mother, Anna Benjamin-Marcus, told this newspaper that she still hadn’t been given any reliable information by anyone. “The police came, they said that my son passed but I don’t know how it happened, I don’t know any of that”, she lamented. She identified the other victim of the fatal accident as her son’s best friend, but could not say where they left to go.
The vehicle, said to be owned by the cousin of Marcus, has been written off.
Steffon Simmons, a cousin of the now deceased Ronaldo Simmons, noted that he awoke to the calls of his neighbours outside his home as they alerted him to the fact that something had happened to Ronaldo. “Them man come and first them seh that them man alright but them ain’t know if they gin mek it, so I she, ‘No, y’all making joke,’” he recalled.
He noted that after telling his relatives what had happened, he decided to make the journey to the Diamond Diagnostic Cen-tre, where he learnt that his cousin and his friend had died.
Meanwhile, Aderemi Simon, the coach of the Old Fort Hockey Club, noted that the two young men were excellent hockey players. “They were joyful, youthful and pleasant individuals. They have always been hardworking, very dedicated, and they progressed very well in the sport,” he said of them.
Simon also noted that the young men had tried out for the Pan American Games that were supposed to be held this year.
He expressed his condolences to their families and explained that the local hockey world is saddened by the sudden passing of the two players. “The whole hockey fraternity and the Old Fort Hockey Club [are] very distraught by the whole thing and when the information came through last night it felt so surreal that something like that actually happened,” he said.
At the accident scene yesterday, this newspaper observed Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) workers replacing the pole that was struck by the vehicle.
A resident who lives on the property where the car crashed into the fence, told Stabroek News that it took around an hour and a half for the dust to settle and for the wreckage of the car to be removed.
