Bisham Rampersaud, the brother of 46-year-old Kiran Rampersaud – one of the three victims in the De Willem, West Coast Demerara (WCD) accident – has bemoaned the continued reckless use of the country’s roadways by young drivers.
Rampersaud also known as “Rocky”, a fisherman of Zeeburg, WCD, was standing outside of the Sharmilla Harikissoon Sports bar when was struck down and killed last night by a speeding motorcar driven by an 18-year-old lad.
“Them guys that a buy car, buy them book with the car; and them too young to drive pon road…they don’t have respect for the road the man…nothing more I can say,” the brother lamented.
“All them big ‘boom boom’ set wah deh in the car and so, them [police] should get them out. When that play, you can’t concentrate anyway; none time, at nowhere,” he contended.
Rampersaud was previously married and is said to be a father of one; however, he no longer lives with his family.
Upon receiving news of the accident, the man rushed to the scene to find his brother’s body on the roadway, covered under a sheet.
“I heard some neighbours start call…they said that they hear accident pass on the road, that was 22:10h and abey jumped in a car, we go there and there was a whole set of traffic jam and so.”
“I jumped out of the car, I run to the scene, I see a bedsheet cover the guy, the policeman said ‘you can’t see him’; I said ‘to hell with you this is my brother’ and I removed the sheet, I see is Rocky,” the brother recalled.
The brother described the now dead man as a “very easygoing” person. “He nah quarrel with anybody, he very quiet, he nah got enemy, nothing like ah enemy, if you tell he something, he gone walk away.”
Rampersaud is a distant relative of 44-year-old Ayube Mohammed of Meten-Meer-Zorg, WCD – another of the accident victims.
The third victim is 22-year-old Carlito Gobin of De Willem, who was a worker at the said bar.
The teen driver was reportedly racing with another motorcar when he lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the bystanders outside of the bar.
Two other persons were struck down during the incident and they are currently being treated for their injuries.
The teen driver also received injuries about his body and is currently receiving medical attention under police guard. The driver of the other car that was reportedly involved in the ‘race’ is yet to be apprehended.
According to the Home Affairs Minister, the country had a “successful year” in 2021 as it relates to road fatalities, with a 29% reduction.
But based on the statistics so far this year, Minister Benn said “we appear to have already be in trouble at the rate we’re going”.
Only a few days ago, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill issued a statement expressing concerns at the alarming rate of road fatalities for the year.
For the year 2021, 99 persons were killed when compared with 139 persons for 2020. The 2021 results showed a 29% reduction when compared to 2020.
The “vulnerable class” of road users (pedal cyclist, motor cyclist and pedestrian) accounted for 67.7% of the total deaths in 2021 while in 2020, they accounted for 79.9% of the total deaths.
Minister Edghill had disclosed that from the data retrieved from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), it was found that pedal and motor cyclist combined accounted for 37.4% of the deaths in 2021 and 56.1% in 2020.
Comparative data has shown that as of March 3, 2022, 15 persons were killed on the roadways, as a result of 14 accidents, when compared with the same period for 2021, when 20 persons died from 19 accidents.
“What is significantly alarming, is that in 2021, 14 of the 20 persons killed at that period were the most vulnerable classes of road users (two pedal cyclists, eight motor cyclists and four pedestrians). While at March 3, 2022 of the 15 killed, the vulnerable classes accounted for seven (two pedal cyclists, three motor cyclists, two pedestrians),” Minister Edghill had noted.
The government official noted too that he and his Cabinet colleagues will relook at the current laws and examine ways in which they can ensure “stricter controls, be it the training/re-training of drivers/ riders, higher fines or stiffer penalties and a studied approach for the introduction of a demerit system.”
