2 dead, 3 injured in Coverden smash-up

Hansranie-Persaud-150x150Georgetown: Two persons were killed and three others were injured in a three-vehicle smash-up which occurred in the vicinity of Kaylee’s Gas Station on the Coverden Public Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD) at about 03:55hrs on Sunday.The mangled bodies of 23-year-old Rudolph Bess of 620 Kaneville, EBD, who was riding motorcycle CH 378, and his pillion rider, 16-year-old Hansranie Persaud of Grove Housing Scheme, EBD, suggest that they died instantly at the crash site. Persaud’s right leg was found about 13 feet away from her body, while Bess’s skull was crushed.

Yolanda Fraser-Patterson, 42, of Paradise Village, East Coast Demerara, who was driving Toyota Spacio PNN 9768, was seriously injured in the accident. Her husband Joseph Patterson was not seriously injured.

Also critically injured was Jason Baskarran, 23, of Track ‘B’ Timehri, EBD, who was driving Toyota Prado PHH 8034. They were all taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Rudolph-Bess-150x150Details of the accident are somewhat unclear, but according to eyewitnesses, the car toppled several times before coming to a stop, the jeep ended up on a nearby parapet, and the wrecked motorcycle and the mangled bodies of its two riders were scattered on the roadway.

Eyewitnesses also disclosed that bottles of alcohol were found adjacent to the jeep. Police disclosed that it appeared as if the jeep was heading at a fast pace and fell into a four-inch drop on the road, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and causing the horrific accident.

Reports further revealed that the driver of the motorcar had dropped off relatives at the airport, whilst the motorcyclist and his pillion rider were returning from a party at Soesdyke, EBD and the jeep had left a wedding at Aracari Resort, West Bank Demerara.

According to Hansranie Persaud’s mother, Savitri Bagnauth, she has five children and Persaud was the fourth. She celebrated her 16 birthday on April 5 last.

Motorcycle--150x150Somebody come to me and tell me that my daughter get into an accident with a boy in Coverden. I then go to my sister and tell she, and then I go to the station; then I went to the location and see what really happened,” the mother said with tears in her eyes.

Reflecting on the last time she had seen her daughter alive, the emotional mother said her daughter had been in her bed at minutes to midnight, but was on her phone texting.

 “When I get up and get the news, I check in the bed for her; she was not on the bed. She lined the pillows right away around the bed to make it appear as if she was cover up,” Bagnauth recalled in shock.

The mother said this is the first occasion she knows that her daughter had even been out so late. “The boy she was in the accident with we don’t know, is the first time we hearing about them.”

Persaud, who attended Diamond Secondary School, was described by residents as an outgoing young lady.

Manuel Bess expressed utter shock at his son’s demise. He told this publication that his son does not imbibe alcoholic beverages.

He explained that he was awake at 04:00hrs when he received a call stating that his son was in an accident. “I was quarreling when the car come to pick me up. I was saying is so early in the morning and he deh riding with motor bike all over the place.”

Sensing something was amiss, Bess said he asked the driver of the car, who was taking him in the opposite direction to the East Demerara Regional Hospital at Diamond, EBD, where his son was really.

“I say ‘is where he deh? Is not hospital we got to go and see he?’ The driver said ‘no, we have to go the other direction, since the girl that was with him dead’,”

Bess said he asked: “Is what happen to meh son, bai? He say, ‘when yo reach yo will see’. When I reach I see my son’s brain on the road, I know right away he dead.”

The father explained that he was told by a truck driver who was driving behind the Toyota Prado that the jeep was driving recklessly.

“He said he was swerving in and out of his lane. The man said was three of them was in the vehicle — two in the back and the driver in front.”

Bess said his son had been an auto electrician and a hard working young man. The father acknowledged that he knew his son had left to attend a house party in Soesdyke.

“I know he was at a party, but he doesn’t drink, he normally doesn’t go out, but his friend’s them invite him out and he decided to go.”