Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 16, 2022 News
==The Detective==
By Shervin Belgrave
Kaieteur News – Twenty-six years ago, a drunk driver, a man by the name of Nandram Narine, destroyed the lives of a couple when he killed their only two children in a road accident along the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). He was in his early 20s at the time and had spent some time in jail for causing their deaths. Since becoming a free man, he was reportedly slapped with a $15M civil suit. Moreover, he has been reportedly avoiding Lucille Bacchus, the only surviving Parent of the children, who to this day still weeps for them.
He is probably living with regrets for making a fatal error to drink and drive but it couldn’t get any worse for him when history repeated itself recently. His son, Navindra Narine, 23, made the same fatal mistake to drink and drive and mow down a 10-year-old school girl in Central Lethem, Region Nine.
The son was driving his car when he lost control of the vehicle around 16:40hrs on September 30, last, and crashed into Ruth Glasgow, a student of the Arapaima Primary School in Lethem.
It was reported that Glasgow was struck down moments after stepping out of the Tabatinga Sports Complex. She had participated in school sports activities that day. Friends recalled that she was excited during the activities and did her best but they did not know that it would be her last school sports.
They waved her goodbye and she picked up her bicycle and exited the Sports Complex. Little Glasgow was probably feeling a bit hungry after exhausting herself during the school sports since instead of riding home she decided to eat some food she had with her.
Investigators reported that she was leaning against her bicycle on the parapet munching on some food when suddenly a speeding car ran off the road, while negotiating a turn, and slammed into her. Glasgow did not get to finish her meal; she and her bicycle were flung a fair distance away by the impact of the collision.
Persons rushed to her assistance. She was bleeding from severe head injuries and so they rushed her to the Lethem Regional Hospital. She was unconscious and, in an attempt to save her life, doctors there immediately rushed her by ambulance to the Boa Vista Hospital in neighbouring Brazil. Hopes of her surviving were shattered after she breathed her last while undergoing an emergency surgery.
Navindra Narine, the driver behind the wheel of the car that took her life, was taken into police custody and investigators by way of a breathalyzer test were able to establish that he was drunk when the accident occurred.
He was charged with causing Glasgow’s death due to dangerous driving and was kept in custody for more charges to be instituted against him.
The tragic accident made headlines but it was not only Glasgow’s parents and loved ones who were mourning her death.
Another mother, Lucille Bacchus, was weeping too as she read the various reports about the drunk driver who was responsible for the death of a little girl. She was forced to relive a day she wishes to forget. Twenty-six years ago on November 16, 1996, the lives of her only two children, Shameer and Fareena Bacchus, were snatched away after a drunk driver, Navindra’s dad, Nandram, crashed into them along the East Coast Demerara (ECD) public road. The children were only 17 and 16 years old at the time.
Speaking with The Waterfalls during a recent interview, Bacchus recalled that her children had rode out from her home at Lusignan that morning on a small motorcycle she and her husband had bought for them.
They had gone to a friend’s home at Enmore to borrow a book but on their way back, Nandram, the driver of a speeding car, overtook a parked vehicle and sideswiped two persons on another motorcycle before hitting the siblings.
Bacchus at the time had just closed up the family’s shop and was about to relax when a neighbour passed by and asked about her children. She had responded by saying that they would return home shortly but that was not to be.
The happiness in her life was completely erased after she learnt that Shameer and Fareena were victims of an accident. Shameer died that same day from his injuries while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Fareena survived a bit longer but died 10 days later from kidney failure in Trinidad after undergoing brain surgery there.
Bacchus was thrown into a state of depression and hasn’t recovered from the shock and grief. The incident even caused the woman and her husband to separate. He later passed away.
Nandram, the driver of the car that took their children’s lives, was found guilty of being responsible for their deaths after a three-year trial. He was sentenced to three years in jail but was released on good behaviour after spending a short time behind bars.
Bacchus was able to secure a $15M civil suit against him for the death of her children but that took seven years to achieve. Nandram, however, did not want to pay the full amount and had offered $25,000 a month but Bacchus did not agree to that, calling it unfair. Since then, Nandram has reportedly been avoiding payment of the wrongful death lawsuit filed against him.
“I have been running back and forth to the court to get it over with. He had gone overseas to spend some time but had returned and then I heard that he was hiding out in Lethem,” Bacchus said.
The Waterfalls understands that Nandram and his family had moved to the Region Nine district to start a new life and leave his past behind, but it seems as though it has come back to haunt him again.
As for Bacchus, she is willing to forget the tragedy that befell her in 1996 but each time she opens the newspapers and reads tragic news, such as the recent accident, she is plunged into a state of grieve all over again. The headlines of fatal accidents caused by reckless drivers make her angry and cause her pain, she informed.
She still cries and while she might continue to grieve for Shameer and Fareena, Bacchus is making it her duty to comfort parents just like her and fight for justice with them.
Following the death of Glasgow, the 10-year-old girl who was struck down recently by Nandram’s son, Bacchus made a Facebook post.
It reads: “Today I join with the mother of that 10-year-old child from Lethem who lost her life due to a drunken speeding driver. Mama I share your loss and my heart is bleeding for you. Twenty-six years ago on November 16, my precious teenager angels, Shameer and Fareena, rode out on their bike to visit a friend. It was minutes before nine when they were returning home that they were hit by a drunken speeding driver. Unfortunately, that little girl from Lethem was killed by the son of the man who killed my children. I am so sad for the Parents because they have to endure the same pain that I am going through”.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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