Contractor remanded over alleged vehicle-ramming death
Guyana
A Berbice contractor was yesterday remanded to prison after he was charged with causing death by dangerous driving following an incident in Canefield, East Canje Berbice, where it is alleged that he rammed his vehicle into a crowd.
Shazad Sattaur, 36, of Lot 1294 Glasgow Housing Scheme, East Bank Berbice appeared at the Reliance Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh where he was charged with causing the death of Somdatt Indal, also known as “Fats”, 51 of Lot 1178 Canefield Settlement, East Canje Berbice, by dangerously driving motor pick up GZZ 8988 on Sunday.
Sattaur, who was represented by Attorney at Law, Mursaline Bacchus, was not required to enter a plea to the charge.
He was also charged with failure to report an accident, failure to stop after an accident and failure to render assistance to the injured persons, all of which he pleaded not guilty to.
Bail was denied for those counts and Sattaur was remanded to prison.
He will return to court on February 17.
Sattaur is accused of ramming his Tacoma vehicle into a crowd at a wedding house in Canefield, East Canje Berbice around 1 am on Sunday.
Indal died as a result of the incident, while injured are Dion Kistan, 11, a student of the Canje Secondary School and of Lot 23 Goed Bananen Land, East Canje, Berbice; Leon Reis, 26, of Lot 1143 East Canefield, East Canje, Berbice; and Daniel Sackichand, 21, of Adelphi Village, East Canje, Berbice.
Kistan who sustained a broken leg and major injuries to his other leg, underwent emergency surgery at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital following the incident.
Reports say that some of the injured persons were at a wedding in Canefield Settlement, East Canje, Berbice. Stabroek News was told that a young man there became involved in an argument with several others and decided to telephone his cousin, (Sattaur) who arrived in his Tacoma vehicle.
Eyewitnesses said that the vehicle bore the sign N&S Contracting, which Sattaur owns.
After the driver also reportedly got involved in the argument, some people attempted to block his vehicle; he then allegedly drove into a crowd hitting people who had not been involved in the argument.
This newspaper was told that Indal, who was standing at a distance, was first struck and sustained major injuries to his head.
Kistan, who was visiting Canefield to spend the weekend with his grandmother, was riding through the area with his uncle when they were struck down.
Both Indal and Kistan were flung into the air and landed on the road surface as a result of the impact, while the two other injured men were pitched into a nearby drain.
The driver then fled the scene leaving the deceased and injured lying on the roadway. His escape was caught on camera by persons at the location.
The injured persons were picked up by relatives and taken to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital; Indal was pronounced dead on arrival.
Earlier this month, Sattaur’s contract for the El Dorado road which his company failed to start some eight months after receiving funds for mobilization was terminated by Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill.
Following that, the Ministry of Public Works wrote to the national tender board and had planned to notify the Public Procurement Commission why it no longer wished N&S General Engineering Contracting Services, to undertake any of its other projects, Edghill had said.
“As for bidding again? Not at the Ministry of Public Works. We have written the Tender Board indicating that this is [an errant] contractor and he should not be engaged in works at the ministry. Any other ministry wants to take him, fine, but not here. I am not here to curry favour with anybody and there are rules of engagement,” Edghill had said.
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