Truck driver in Agricola accident which left girl, 7, dead walks free

(Freed: Danion Welcome; Dead: 7-year-old Ciarra Benjamin) 

Two years after truck driver Danion Welcome was charged with crushing seven-year-old Ciarra Benjamin to death in an accident at the Agricola Public Road, Greater Georgetown, the charge against him was dismissed on Tuesday after the Prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence.

41-year-old Danion Welcome, of Albouys Street, Albouystown, Georgetown was on trial before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. The father of four had denied the charge which stated that on June 1, 2019, at the Agricola Public Road, he drove motor lorry GWW 962 in a manner dangerous to the public thereby causing the death of Benjamin.

Welcome was represented by Attorneys-at-law Dexter Todd and Dexter Smartt. During a telephone interview, Todd told this publication, “I made a no-case submission to the Court saying that the Prosecution had not produced sufficient evidence to call upon [Welcome] to lead a defence.”

Magistrate Daly upheld the no-case submission and dismissed the case. Welcome had been out on $500,000, bail pending the hearing and determination of his trial.  His driver’s licence was suspended following the accident.

It was reported that on the day in question, at about 16:10 hours, Welcome was driving the lorry which was heading north on the eastern driveway of the western carriageway of Agricola Public Road.

At the time he was allegedly traveling at a fast rate and while in the vicinity of the Agricola Public Road, he lost control of the lorry which swerved and collided with Benjamin. The child’s body was severed into two following the gruesome accident.