Mother of 4 killed by Police vehicle in EBD accident

By LaWanda McAllister

On the very day a 59-year-old woman was anticipating to meet her newborn grandchild, she was struck down and killed by a Guyana Police Force (GPF) minibus along the East Bank Demerara Public Road on Tuesday.

Dead is Dulmattie Boodlall, a saleswoman of Lot 950 Block Y Section C, Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
On Tuesday, Boodlall was killed at about 07:26h along the Peters Hall Public Road by minibus PWW 7172, driven by a Police Constable.
Police in their report stated that minibus PWW 7172 was proceeding north along the roadway when the driver alleged that the woman attempted to cross the road. The driver claimed that on seeing the woman, he swerved to avoid a collision, but ended up hitting the woman.
As a result of the impact, she fell onto the roadway and received injuries about her body. She subsequently died while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

When Guyana Times visited the dead woman’s home, her son, Sookram Deochand, explained when he learnt of his mother’s demise.
“I was at work when I got a call that my mother get hit down, so I rushed to the scene, when I got to the scene, they told me that she gone to the hospital. When I going to the hospital, I hear my mother died at the scene,” the tearful man said.
Deochand further stated that the news came as a shock to him and his family since he saw his mother on Tuesday morning before she left for work.
“When I go this morning [Tuesday] to the station, and I was finding out what happened, they asked me if I is the Police. I told [them] I am the lady son and I want to know what happened,” he explained.
The man rubbished the Police’s Public Relations Department statement which stated that the vehicle was driving at a slow rate of speed.
“It is in the middle of the road mommy get knock down. She was crossing and was in the middle, we went and ask some people and someone show us some things and we see that she already cross when a pitbull bus come and knock she down,” he said.
Boodlall’s son told this publication that his family intends to have justice served.
“Imagine they [the Police] already put that the bus was going at a slow rate of speed. How can a bus that is going at a slow rate of speed knock down a woman and kill her? If you see my mother’s hand, it was separated and broken up, her eye had a big hole, her head had a big hole, her whole left side face gone in. Mommy was in parts when I saw her,” he explained.
Deochand further added “do you know how it feels? When I hold my mother hand and foot it was cold, cold, she was already gone. It is very hard to lose your mother. My wife is in the hospital and get baby today [Tuesday] and I can’t even tell her nothing. Now my mother gone and pass away today [Tuesday], this can be fair?”.
Tearful to the point that his words were broken, Deochand said he now lives with regrets for not letting his mother sleep at his house on Monday night. The man said he did not know that he deprived himself the last opportunity to be with his mother. Police have since said that they are investigating the accident.