GWI must accept culpability for McPherson’s death – Relatives

By Kurt Campbell

[www.inewsguyana.com] – The wife and children of dead cyclist Claude McPherson on Thursday (March 6) protested outside the Guyana Water Incorporated headquarters on Vlissingen Road, Georgetown claiming that the utility company should accept some amount of responsibility for the man’s untimely demise and expressed disappointment with the manner in which the company dealt with the matter.

The protest came moments after GWI employee Shawn Ravindra, who was driving the vehicle that collided with McPherson appeared in Court and claimed he had reported to the company four weeks prior to the accident that the brakes on the vehicle were defective.

McPherson’s wife, Marisha McPherson said she was very upset with the manner in which things unfolded, adding that since her husband died she never heard from the company.

“I want to know how GWI could have a vehicle on the road that is not working properly, how could that be, without any fitness, GWI have to do something… I have three children and my sole breadwinner is gone” she said.

The woman further added, “I want to know what they will do because it’s their vehicle, maybe if their brakes were in order my husband would have been alive… GWI must have known that they had a vehicle on the road that wasn’t fit to be on the road.”

Also protesting was the man’s 25 – year – old American based son, Seon McPherson. 

Meanwhile, another relative who only identified herself as Sarah was very adamant that the utility company should have demonstrated more compassion and with what was revealed in Court accept some amount of responsibility.

 

“I called the police and he told me that the man wasn’t going to court however I got a phone saying that he was going, when I go there the officer ask me how I know and what I doing there and told me it was in Court One when I get there they move him to court three” Sarah said, adding that “I know it’s a bailable offence but I believe he should not have gotten bail because he failed to take him to the hospital and probably if he had assisted my uncle would have lived… GWI didn’t even bring a wreath, is it a horse they knock, I believe so but this horse story ain’t going down like that.”

McPherson was killed on Wednesday, February 26 at Mandela Avenue Public Road after GWI vehicle PRR 2923 collided with him when he rode out of a cross street on a bicycle.

The driver was accused of driving away and failing to render assistance, all of which he was charged with when he appeared in Court today. He was placed on over $2M bail on the condition that he report to the traffic Sergeant at East La Penitence Police Station every Friday.