Accused in Corentyne double-fatality for trial next month

The driver who has been charged in the hit-and-run accident that occurred on the Number 70 Village Public Road on the Corentyne Coast in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on March 18 last, in which two lives were lost, will go on trial next Monday for three other offences.
Vivendra Ramdharry, 37, of Number 69 Village, Corentyne, has already been charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. It is alleged that on March 18, he drove motor van PVV 1015 in a manner dangerous to the public, thereby causing the deaths of 28-year-old Felicia Fernandes of Coverden, East Bank Demerara and 19-year-old Toney Lakeram, a carpenter of Number 71 Village, Corentyne.
He has already been placed on $250,000 bail in relation to those charges, but has now been slapped with two counts of failing to render assistance after an accident and one count of failing to report the accident. In relation to the latter three charges, Ramdharry will go on trial from August 11, his lawyer Bernard Da Silva has informed.
Concerning the death by dangerous driving charges, Guyana Times understands that Ramdharry and the relatives of the deceased persons have taken a “certain course of action,” which may result in the charge being withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). As a conditionality attached to bail, the accused was ordered to lodge his passport with the court.
The matters are being heard by Senior Magistrate Alex Moore at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.

Police have said that the accident occurred at about 23:20h on the Number 70 Public Road, Corentyne, and the vehicles involved are an electric bike that Lakeram was riding and a motor van that Ramdharry was driving.
Reports are that the van was speeding along the roadway when it collided with the electric bike and barrelled into Fernandes, who was reportedly a pedestrian, before continuing on its journey. As a result, the duo, having sustained injuries about their bodies, were picked up in an unconscious state and taken to the Skeldon Public Hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Ramdharry was arrested at Kitty, Georgetown the day after the accident. The vehicle he was reportedly driving was found extensively damaged at a house at Number 69 Village, Corentyne, Berbice. (G1)