The family of 40-year-old Kevon John Newland, who was killed in an accident along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway on Saturday, is still in shock over his untimely death.
Divisional Commander Winter and some members of his team visiting Kevon John Newland’s family at his home in Wisroc, Linden, on Monday
Newland, a father of four of Lot 338 Wisroc, Wismar, Linden, was killed after the car, HC 6304, in which he was travelling, slammed into a lumber truck at about 11:30h on Saturday.
Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Police Commander Hugh Winter and a team of Police along with a pastor visited the grieving family on Monday where they extended sympathy and offered words of comfort to the bereaved.
Family members are still in shock and disbelief over what they described as the untimely death of their loved one whom they also described as a peacemaker. Newland returned to Guyana from the United States in February.
Dead: Kevon John Newland
Speaking with this publication, Newland’s cousin, Stella Newland-Murray, said the death of her cousin was “like a dream”. The distraught woman said the family was still trying to come to grips with his death.
“He was always a very good person, the whole neighbourhood can testify to that. When Kevon is passing through the street, he calls out to everybody. Everybody knows him, always kind, always with a smile. Never one day have I seen my cousin vex, always jovial,” Newland-Murray related, in between tears.
She said she last spoke with her cousin on Friday evening.
“For me, it’s really hard. It’s like a dream, because to know he wasn’t sick…My cousin have a baby girl in the States, she doesn’t know her father. He was going back to the States next couple months,” she noted.
According to the family, Newland owned a car which his brother operates. On the tragic day, he was travelling to Georgetown to pay his car instalment. The family is more so distraught since they noted that Newland’s mother would have also died in an accident on the same highway back in 1987.
It was as a result of this, the family said, he never travelled in the front seat of any vehicle. In fact, Newland was seated in the back seat of the car when the accident occurred.
Newland, who lived with his father, was taking care of two of his children at his home at the time of his death. The family said they are awaiting the arrival of other family members before making final arrangements for the funeral.
Reports are that the driver of the car, Orin “Six Head” Rose, overtook another car, PLL 182, and lost control. The driver of PLL 182 had reportedly slowed to allow the lumber truck to turn while Rose overtook him and slammed into the rear of the vehicle. Public-spirited citizens managed to remove Newland and three other injured persons from the wreckage. Rose along with passengers – Shemron Niles and another female passenger – were also injured in the accident. They were all rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where Newland was pronounced dead on arrival. Meanwhile, Rose remains hospitalised and is said to be in a stable condition while Niles, who reportedly sustained minor injuries, was treated and sent away. Police reportedly took the driver of the truck into custody for questioning. (G13)
