Unidentified errant driver may be businessman

- four-year-old girl still unconscious

Latifa Rodney

Osondo Rodney in the hospital

Police are checking reports that a businessman was driving the pickup which struck down a mother and badly injured her two children on Mandela Avenue on Sunday night.
A traffic official who spoke with Kaieteur News yesterday declined to say whether they have any information about the driver’s identity. However, the official confirmed that the errant driver is still at large.
The suspect fled from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation after taking the unconscious children and their mother there.
Latoya Rodney, her four-year-old daughter, Latifa Rodney and one-year-old son Osondo Rodney, were struck down at around 20: 15 hrs while standing on Mandela Avenue near the entrance to Go-Slow Avenue, Tucville.
Both children sustained head injuries and are in critical condition. Latifa, who has not regained consciousness, has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Her brother, who is in a semi-conscious state, has been admitted to the Pediatric Ward.
The children’s mother told this newspaper that both children had to do a CT scan to ascertain the severity of their head injuries.

Latoya Rodney

Latoya Rodney, their 24-year-old mother, received injuries to her hands, feet and head but was not hospitalised.
Ms. Rodney alleged that she was only given some pain killers even though she was crying out for pains in her head and feet. The back of her head is also swollen.
Ms. Rodney recalled that she and the children were standing on Mandela Avenue near a bus stop when she saw a pickup attempting to overtake a car that was heading towards them.
The woman said that she shifted further towards the parapet but the pickup driver then lost control and struck them. Ms. Rodney said she was momentarily knocked unconscious.
“When I caught myself I see my daughter lying under the jeep (pickup) and the little boy up the road. I start to holler because I think that they dead.”
According to the distraught woman, the driver attempted to flee in his vehicle, but “some boys block him off.”
Ms. Rodney said that the driver placed the children in the pickup, which was occupied by two other men, and took them to the GPHC. She recalled that she asked the driver to borrow his mobile phone to notify relatives of the mishap.
However, when they arrived at the hospital, the driver departed without notifying anyone that he had caused the accident.
The woman said that her bag with some $30,000 and mobile phone was stolen during the mishap.