A Corentyne taxi driver and a friend are now dead after he lost control of his car during a street race and crashed into a paddy truck at Borlam Turn, Corentyne, on Tuesday morning.
Driver Latchman Sukhan, 20, of Lot 333 Ankerville, Port Mourant, Corentyne, and his friend, Yujisteer Puran, also known as ‘Danny’, 26, a security officer of Lot 50 Crawford Street, Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, were reportedly racing Sukhan’s older brother, Karan Sukhan, 22, who was in another car along the Corentyne Highway when the accident occurred.
Stabroek News was told that Sukhan lost control of his car, PSS 1682, as he rounded the Borlam Turn and skidded sideways into a paddy truck, GZZ 4440, which had stopped in the corner of the road in his lane after noticing the oncoming “sliding car.”
According to an eyewitness, Suresh Mathews, 28, a porter, of Black Bush Polder, who was on the truck, they were on their way to transport paddy to a rice mill in Region Five when the accident occurred just around 03.37 hrs.
“Abbay deh a come up and abbay see two car a come around the turn deh. One black car and this red car here. And when the car come around, me see the black car pass am and then me see the red car a come cross way (sideways) on the road a come, and the driver fa the truck pull down a the corner and stop and he (red car) a come cross way and broadside the truck in front,” he recounted.
Mathews insisted that the truck had already stopped when Sukhan’s car skidded into the front of it.
Afterward Mathews said both he and the driver ran to help the occupants of the car. They noticed that the driver could be removed but Puran was pinned down in the front passenger side seat. He said, “The black car that pass turn and come back and then he [the driver] start holla, ‘Watch wah happen to be buddy!’ And he take him [Sukhan] out and carry him hospital.”
Puran’s body was eventually removed from the wreckage by members of the Guyana Fire Service and it was then transported to the Port Mourant Hospital by members of the Guyana Police Force and was pronounced dead on arrival.
Mathews was extremely grateful to be alive and according to him both he and the driver of the truck escaped without any injuries.
