Nine-year-old Carlisa Lewis of Islington, East Bank Berbice became Guyana’s latest road fatality when she was struck down by a 4-runner along the Islington Public Road on Friday.
Dead: Carlisa Lewis
The Police have said that at about 9:00h on Friday, motor vehicle PJJ 2394, driven by a resident of Glasgow Village, East Bank Berbice, was proceeding along the Islington Public Road when the child allegedly attempted to cross the road and ran into the path of the vehicle.
As a result, the front portion of the vehicle connected with the child, and she fell on the roadway and sustained injuries about her body and head. With assistance from her sister, the driver picked up the child in an unconscious state and took her to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Her body is presently at the New Amsterdam Hospital mortuary, awaiting post mortem.
Meanwhile, the driver was arrested, and was subjected to a breathalyzer test which proved that there were no traces of alcohol in his system.
Speaking with Guyana Times, the dead child’s father, Carlton Lewis explained that the accident was witnessed by Carlisa’s siblings who claimed that the child was in the corner of the road when she was hit.
Police at the scene of the accident
“They told the Police Officer that they saw what happened and the officer told them that they are too traumatised to relate what they saw,” the grieving father told this publication.
He stated that villagers later told him that the occupants of the vehicle were allegedly fighting at the time of the accident.
“People told me that the car was swaying from side to side as it was driving through the village,” the father stated.
He is requesting that the Police conduct a thorough investigation into the fatal accident. Carlisa was the fifth of six children.
The vehicle which struck the child
Only recently, Traffic Chief, Senior Superintendent Ramesh Ashram, disclosed that there has been a decrease in road accidents by some 32 per cent, along with a 33 per cent decrease in deaths in the country.
“For 2020, to date last year, we had 102 accidents with 111 deaths. For the same period this year, we are having 69 accidents with 74 deaths. So, in accidents, we have a 32 per cent decrease, and 33% decrease in deaths”, the Traffic Chief revealed.
Further, he appealed to the general public to obey the traffic rules. The Traffic Chief lauded the installation of the CCTV cameras, since those have been assisting the Traffic Department in easily capturing events of fatal accidents as well as in curbing traffic offences.
“I could tell you that the CCTV (cameras are) helping us a lot, because we solve a lot of traffic offences with that on a daily basis. As long as it pops up on the phone or the CCTV centre and we get it, we get the driver; and 90 out of 100 they do not dispute it, because when you show them, they realise it’s them,” he stated.
He has urged road users to not be reluctant in reporting persons who breach traffic laws, since, in most instances, especially in public transportation, persons sit silently as drivers break the traffic laws.
Investigations into the road fatality involving Carlisa Lewis are continuing.
