Better Hope painter dies after losing control of motorcycle
The family of a Better Hope, East Coast Demerara (ECD) painter did not get to start the New Year as they quite expected.
They were rather thrown into a state of grief after learning that 59-year-old Donald Mootoo met his gruesome demise in a motorcycle accident on the Montrose Public Road, ECD.
Donald Mootoo with his wife, Sumintra Shadeo, in happier times
Police reports have revealed that about 01:50h on January 1, 2020, motorcycle CH 7540 driven by Mootoo was proceeding along the roadway when he reportedly lost control and crashed into the median.
As a result of the impact, his body was flung into a lamp pole in the centre of the road and sustained severe injuries, including severed lower limbs.
He was picked up in an unconscious state by public-spirited citizens and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
When this publication visited the home of the deceased on Thursday, his wife, 63-year-old Sumintra Shadeo, who barely managed to speak, recounted that on December 31, 2019, Mootoo left their Lot 13 Bissoon Street, South Better Hope, ECD residence shortly after dropping her home from the market.
Wife of the dead man, Sumintra Shadeo, speaking to this publication
She recalled that he visited a friend to do some painting and was returning home at the time of his demise.
“He carry me to the market and he bring me home back. When he bring me home back he said he going by a friend to collect something…so he go and help them to paint and he was coming home when he get the accident and I didn’t know nothing,” she said.
The grieving woman, between tears, shared that family members later accompanied her to the GPHC mortuary to identify the body of her dead husband. He was described as a good person who lived happily with his family. (Leah Hernandez)
