A pregnant woman died on Monday evening at the New Amsterdam Hospital after the driver of the car in which she was traveling, lost control and slammed into a utility pole.
The accident occurred at Number Two Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB) and has left another passenger hospitalised.
The driver is currently assisting Police with the investigation.
The dead woman has been identified as Donnis Higgins of Lot 103 Semple Street, Hopetown Village, WCB.
Reports are that Higgins was one of the two passengers in the car at the time of the accident. Eyewitnesses say the car slammed into a utility pole and then a fence after it missed a sharp turn on the road.
Moments after the accident, an ambulance which was already carrying a patient from the Fort Wellington Hospital collected both passengers.
According to reports, when the ambulance arrived at the New Amsterdam Hospital, persons gathered and watched helplessly as both mother and foetus fought for their lives.
The woman was taken to the Accident and Emergency Unit; however, after several hours of trying, doctors were unable to save the mother and her unborn child.
Higgins was a mother of one and a former clerk attached to the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA).
The other passenger in the car at the time of the accident, Daniel Harrynarine, was admitted to the same hospital. According to the 24-year-old, he joined the vehicle at Cotton Tree to go two villages away, but only made it past one village.
“I was going to Number Four when I catch a taxi going to Number Four. I don’t know if the driver slept away or what, but the driver just run off the road by a turn and go straight into a fence,” the injured man said.
His brother Chandrica told this publication that he received the news and rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
He explained that he saw the injured woman being attended to by doctors and heard her screaming as he searched for his brother.
Meanwhile, a Police source explained that the driver of the motor car, bearing registration number HB 3101, Lancelot Ferguson, 45, of Belladrum, WCB, claimed that he did not know what happened.
According to the source, the driver claimed to suffer from hypertension. Police ‘B’ (Berbice) Division Commander Ian Amsterdam said the driver was not found to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. (Guyana Times)
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