Truck driver jailed for five years over Mandela Avenue fatal accident

Forty-four-year-old Aslom Masood, the truck driver who slammed into a city businessman’s vehicle and killed him, was on Thursday, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

Masood of Lot 10 Supply, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

He was charged with the offence of causing death by dangerous driving.

He pleaded guilty to the charge which stated that on September 15, at Mandela Avenue, Georgetown, he drove motor lorry GYY 5875 in a manner dangerous to the public thereby causing the death Nigel Cush, 45, of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Georgetown.

Masood had initially told the Police that the traffic light at the junction was green and so he continued driving.

He further told investigators that he saw Cush, who was driving a Toyota Rav4, slowed down while approaching Mandela and drove into his path.

However, CCTV footage revealed that the light was red when the truck driver slammed into Cush’s car causing the now dead man’s vehicle to slam into a stop light pole due to the impact.

As a result, Cush was flung through the front windscreen of the car.

He was placed into an ambulance and taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police had said that a breathalyzer test conducted on the truck driver showed no trace of alcohol. Following an investigation, he was arrested and charged.

Cush was a father of four.