The Stabroek News: Cyclist clings to life after being struck down
By Stabroek staff | January 3, 2010 in Local News
A cyclist is nursing head injuries in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Hospital after he was involved in an accident on New Year’s Eve on the La Bonne Intention Public Road, East Coast Demerara.
Lakeram Delima, 18, is said to be unconscious and attached to a life-support machine.
Delima left home on Thursday evening around 7pm to purchase phone cards on the main road, according to his mother, Sharmila Ramdeo. He was subsequently hit by a car.
Ramdeo told Stabroek News that after an hour passed and Delima did not return she and her husband got into their vehicle and went to look for him. She said they passed the scene of the accident unawares. It was while on their way to the police station that her husband noticed blood and a shirt on the road. When they pulled over to inspect it, she recognised her son’s shirt. Ramdeo said that it was a passing motorist who informed them of the accident, which it is believed occurred at the junction of the main and the estate roads. The driver is said to be in police custody.
Ramdeo was upset at the treatment of her son. According to her, the driver said that Delima was crossing the street when he was hit, but she had been told by an eyewitness that her son was in the corner of the road when he was hit. Further, Ramdeo said the eyewitness claimed that someone had got out of the car and after looking at the boy got back in and the car left. However, Ramdeo said that the driver told her that his friends had told him to go to the station and they would take the boy to the hospital. The distraught woman lamented that her son’s condition might have been less serious if he had been rushed immediately to the hospital. Reports are that when the police were called they only took the bicycle and made no effort to move the body. It was an army vehicle which was flagged down that transported Delima to the hospital, the mother said.
Meanwhile, police spokesman Ivelaw Whittaker said statements had been taken from the driver, who was alleging that Delima had been hit while crossing the road into the vehicle’s path. The driver is expected to be put on bail since the standard 72-hour detention period will expire. The matter is under investigation, Whittaker said.
