By Joe Chapman and Shirley Thomas
TEN persons were up to last night confirmed dead after a mini-bus smashed into the back of a truck laden with logs on the top of the hill in Amelia’s Ward, Linden on Wednesday night.

Residents said that from all indications the mini-bus was speeding when it slammed into the parked truck, ending in perhaps the most tragic accident ever in Linden.

Among the dead were Carl McCalmont, of Amelia’s Ward, an Investment Officer at the Linden Economic Development Programme (LEAP) and only recently married; Elaine Lashley, 45, who died on her way to Georgetown for medical treatment; and Colleen Bacchus, 19, who was on her way home from a wake for her grandfather.

The bus was ferrying passengers on the internal route between Mackenzie and Amelia’s Ward when tragedy struck.

Witnesses said the bus was going up the Amelia’s Ward Hill and when it was close to the top, the driver apparently attempted to overtake two other vehicles but was caught in the glare of the headlamps from a vehicle coming in the opposite direction and swerved to avoid a collision.

He quickly pulled back into his lane and the bus slammed into the back of the parked truck laden with logs, killing at least four persons instantly.

The injured were rescued and rushed to the Mackenzie Hospital.

Nichola Jones was not in the mini-bus at the time and yesterday, at the Vivienne Parris Health Centre where she works, and said she was worried about the reports of her death.

The injured include Mark Lewis, 27, the driver, with injuries to the left leg and right hand; Fonda Lashley, 25, with injuries to her lower extremity and trauma, and eight-year-old Leon Grenville who was traumatised about the body.

Among those transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) are Odetta Gordon, 33, of 854 Lovers’ Lane, South Amelia’s Ward; Wendy Nedd, 16, also of Amelia’s Ward, Linden; and Oriel Simeon, 29, of Calcum Mission, Berbice River.

Nedd, whose condition was listed as critical up to late yesterday, remained in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) suffering broken limbs, and injuries to the neck and spine.

Gordon, who had shortly before the crash attended a Deliverance prayer meeting at Mackenzie, said that after leaving church, she went to purchase items for her children in preparation for schools’ athletic sports yesterday. She was on her way home when disaster struck.

Simeon, a chain saw-operator who resides at Calcum Mission, suffered injuries to the head, neck, and his right leg. He was yesterday complaining of numbness about the body.

Recounting the accident in a faint voice, he said he was at the Linden bus park boarding another bus bound for Amelia’s Ward, when his 29-year-old cousin, Jerome Cruickshank, also called Albert, signalled to him that he preferred to travel with Lewis’ bus.

He said he got out of the bus, and together, he and his cousin boarded the ill-fated BGG 9112. Within minutes, tragedy had struck. Simeon said he was not aware they had been involved in an accident until he regained consciousness in an ambulance on his way to the Georgetown hospital.

The injured man recalled that he had travelled from Berbice to Linden on Tuesday, to take his younger brother, Rondell to see a doctor. He said on Wednesday, he and Rondell visited their aunt who lives at Amelia’s Ward, and she invited them to stay over at her residence the night.

But since Simeon’s bag was left at the Amerindian Residence at Mackenzie, he asked his cousin Albert to accompany him there to collect it. It was while they were returning home to Amelia’s Ward that they became involved in the accident.

Albert was also hurt, but his condition is listed as stable.

Confirmed deaths up to press time last night:
** Paul Lewis, 19, of Cinderella City, Amelia’s Ward

** Tyrese McClean, of 1023 Cinderella City, Amelia’s Ward

** Carl McCalmont, of Amelia’s Ward

** Delroy Mitchell, 17, of Cinderella City, Amelia’s Ward

** Elaine Evelyn Lashley, 45, of Cinderella City, Amelia’s Ward

** Carl Austin, of Amelia’s Ward

** Colleen Bacchus (no photograph available) of Central Amelia’s Ward

** Karen Evelyn ‘Lyn’ Adams, 42, of Amelia’s Ward

** Lorraine McCurdy, 40, of Amelia’s Ward

** Florence Cummings, of Amelia’s Ward.

INJURED:
driver of the minibus, 27-year-old Mark Lewis of Cinderella City, Amelia’s Ward;

Wendy Nedd, warded at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation;

Fonda Lashley, 25; Leon Grenville, 8; Shurland Daniels, 16; Jerome Cruickshank, 30; Stacy Fordyce, 33, of 28 Cinderella City, Amelia’s Ward; Oriel Simmons, warded at the GPHC and Odettea Gordon, 35, also a patient at the GPHC.

Nichola Jones of the Vivienne Parris Health Centre, who was earlier listed as among the dead, is alive and well. She was not involved in the accident. The Guyana Chronicle regrets any inconvenience the report may have caused Ms. Jones and her family and friends.