Twenty-five-year-old Alana Ramsarran-Da Silva of La Parfaite Harmonie, WBD is now dead, and 20 others are nursing serious injuries following a smash-up involving a minibus and a motorcar that occurred on the La Parfaite Harmonie Access Road, West Bank Demerara (WBD) just after 07:00h on Saturday.
Dead: Alana Ramsarran-DaSilva
Guyana Times understands that Ramsarran-DaSilva was driving motor car PWW 972 proceeding west while minibus BTT 3118 was heading in an easterly direction with 20 occupants, including the driver, 42-year-old Ramkumar Persaud, called “Crosseye,” of Westminster, WBD.
The bus driver claimed that as he was heading out of the Access Road, the car was travelling in the opposition direction, and it allegedly swerved into his path, resulting in a head-on collision. Both vehicles were badly damaged.
The driver of the motorcar reportedly died on the way to the hospital without regaining consciousness. She was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH).
Meanwhile, all 20 occupants in the minibus were injured, with four of them being listed as critical. The driver sustained broken limbs.
Members of the public assisting the driver and a passenger
Among those injured are: 36-year-old Roneta Paul, 50-year-old Fizan Mohammed, 24-year-old Safraz Mohammed, and 32-year-old Anita Mohan, all of Retch-door-zee, WBD. Additionally, 59-year-old Alvin Edmond and his wife Rhonda Edmond of Schoonard; Leon La Rose, 30, of Onderneeming, WBD, and Alisha Allicock also of Onderneeming, were injured in the accident.
They were all rushed to the WDRH, where this newspaper caught up with the family members of the bus driver.
His wife, Patsy Ram, related that she received a call at about 07:30h, informing her about the accident. She said that she and other family members rushed to the scene, but by that time everyone had already been transported to the hospital.
The worried woman explained that some of the passengers who were in the bus are in serious condition.
Ram noted that eyewitnesses told the family that the bus toppled four times before coming to a halt on its side.
“Them people had to raise up the bus and cut the seat all to tek out de passengers them… Somebody de pin down in de bus and they couldn’t come out, so they had to cut the bus fuh get them out,” the worried woman related.
Some of the injured passengers from the minibus lie on the roadway awaiting medical assistance after being pulled from the wreckage
Some of the occupants with severe injuries have since been transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) for further treatment.
Meanwhile, persons, who converged at the scene of the accident alleged that the driver of the car was earlier seen at a party in Pouderoyen, WBD.
Guyana Times was told that Ramsarran-DaSilva, a mother of one, sustained broken limbs, broken ribs and a broken neck.
This publication understands that the woman’s husband flew in from neighbouring Brazil on Saturday morning after receiving news of her death. Efforts to contact the family members were futile. She leaves to mourn her eight-year-old daughter, husband and parents, along with other family and friends.
(Yanalla Dalrymple)
