“I just can’t catch myself” – father of taxi driver killed in Mahaicony accident

A Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) father is grappling with shock and grief after seeing his son’s lifeless body in a video circulating on social media just hours after the two shared what he described as a routine, eventful conversation at home.

On Friday evening, 24-year-old taxi driver Nicklas Lillah of Lot 918 Tuschen Housing Scheme, EBE, was killed in a horrific crash along the Airy Hall Public Road, Mahaicony.

The accident also took the life of 33-year-old Seerochanie Khemraj, a mother of one, who was seated in the front passenger seat of the car driven by Lillah.

The driver’s father, Jamie Lillah, told this publication that his son worked as a taxi driver for nearly 10 years. He recalled seeing his son alive for the last time on Friday morning.

According to the father, Nicklas was hired to take a family to Berbice. He said the family was a regular customer of his son.

“Anytime they got something to do, they just call him, and he just go. This is not the first time he went up there to go and drop off anybody. Even to buy groceries, he takes them.”

According to the man, his son had been driving for close to a decade and was experienced on the road.b“He has been working taxi for a good while… about eight to ten years. He does drive long… he understands himself.”

However, the father said the moment the family learnt of his son’s death would remain etched in his mind. He said his wife received a call that immediately raised an alarm.

“All of a sudden, I hear she shout out and say, ‘No, it can’t be my son.’ I said, ‘something wrong,” he recounted, adding that he rushed out of bed.

Moments later, Jamie said his daughter came across a video that began circulating online, confirming their worst fears.

“My daughter had her phone and pelted it outside in the sand and started crying… When I go and pick up the phone, I see my son lying down in the grass corner like it was an animal get knocked down in the grass,” he said. “I was so shocked. I said, ‘no he look like he done dead’.”

The father said the image of his son lying motionless has been difficult to erase.

“I just can’t catch myself still… it’s very hard,” the disraught father lamented.

According to Police, the fatal crash occurred at approximately 18:45h and involved a hire car, HD 5859, which was being driven east along the northern side of Huntly Public Road at a fast rate of speed behind a line of vehicular traffic.

Investigations revealed that Nicklas allegedly attempted to overtake the line of vehicles, but, in the process, the left side of his car collided with the right-side rear-view mirror of another motor car, PAN 2760, which was proceeding in the same direction ahead of him.

Police said despite the collision, the hire car continued east at a fast rate of speed, and as the vehicle approached the Airy Hall Public Road, the driver reportedly lost control while negotiating a sharp bend.

The car first slammed into an aluminium rail on the eastern side of the road, then continued further before crashing into a Guyana Power and Light (GPL) utility pole. The impact left the vehicle extensively damaged.

Nicklas and Khemraj sustained severe head and body injuries and were pulled from the wreckage in an unconscious condition by public-spirited citizens. They were rushed to the Mahaicony Public Hospital, where both were pronounced dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, four other occupants of the vehicle, two female teenagers, aged 14 and 17, and two boys, aged 14 and 12, all from Tuschen New Housing Scheme, were rescued conscious from the wreckage. They were treated for minor injuries and admitted as patients.

Even as investigations continue, Nicklas’ grieving father said he cannot say exactly what led to the crash but maintained that his son was a careful and experienced driver, making the accident even harder to understand.

The man remembers his son as a friendly, easy-going man who kept to himself and avoided trouble.

Now, the older Lillah said the family is left not only mourning his loss but also confronting the void left in the lives of his two children, who must grow up without their father.

“It’s very shocking… I never expected this. He has two children, a girl who is in nursery school and a two-year-old son. This is very hard. I can’t even sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I keep seeing how my son’s body was. He was the first of seven children. He was the first to come and the first to go.”

“When we went to the hospital in Mahaicony, his face was smashed in, he lost one of his hands… and his neck was broken. When I was shocked to see my son like that…” the father recalled as he burst into tears.

Meanwhile, when this publication visited the home of Khemraj, none of her family members were at home. Neighbours told this publication that they last saw her alive on Friday afternoon, sometime before leaving to go to Berbice to visit family members. (LaWanda McAllister)