Twenty-Seven-year-old Petona Welcome was placed on $500,000 bail on Thursday when she appeared at the Sparendam Magistrates’ Court to answer the charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
Welcome of lot 39 Austin Street, Campbellville, Georgetown was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that on June 24, 2017, at Liliendaal public road, East Coast Demerara, she drove motor car PSS 7195 in a dangerous manner resulting in the death of her 36-year-old friend, Debra Pompey and injuries to several others.
The court heard that after the accident, Welcome was given a breathalyzer test and she would found to be above the legal limit of alcohol consumption.
The woman, who was being defended by Attorney-at-law, Nigel Anthony, was granted $500,000 bail and is expected to make her next court appearance on August 4, 2017.
Welcome is also on $20,000 bail for a driving under the influence of alcohol charge, and will report to court for that matter on June 29, 2017.
On the evening on June 24, 2017, a bridal shower outing turned deadly for one of six friends on after the car they were travelling in lost control and slammed into the recently renovated bridge at the Liliendaal Railway and Embankment, Greater Georgetown.
The dead woman, Pompey, was an employee attached to Medicare Pharmacy and of Lot 473 Belle West Housing Scheme, Canal No. 2 Polder, West Bank Demerara.
Her twenty-six-year-old sister, Tushanna Hubbard, along with friends: Rodlyn Grace, 20; Shameica Martin, 18; Saskiya Boyer, 30, and the driver of the vehicle, Welcome were also injured.
Inews had reported that the accident occurred sometime around 23:40hrs as the group of six women were heading home from a night out at the Giftland Mall, as one of the women was supposed to get married a few days later.
After partying, the women left the night spot and were heading to Georgetown.
“(They were) proceeding west along the southern driveway allegedly at a fast rate when she [Welcome] lost control of the vehicle, which collided with the southern rail of the Liliendaal Bridge,” police had said.
Welcome, who suffered a fractured left arm, was treated and discharged from the hospital, into police custody.
Pompey’s younger sister was hospitalized for two broken legs.
