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Taxi driver recounts daring escape

 
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The injured Vaidan Madray recovering at home

— after bandits hijacked his car

QUICK thinking and the will to survive probably saved the life of a taxi driver when he was hijacked, robbed and shot at gun-point on October 27, 2017 at about 11:45hrs at Coldingen Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara.

Vaidan Madray called “Ryan” of Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara, a taxi driver who plies his trade from the Coldingen Turn, told Guyana Chronicle that he is very grateful to be alive given the fact he was shot at close range.

The 28-year-old said he was parked at the road corner at Coldingen when a route 44 minibus stopped and three men clad in what appeared to be “work clothes” with cement and long boots and bags exited.

They requested a taxi to go over Coldingen Railway Embankment and since the men did not seem suspicious, given their work attire, Madray took on the task.

The group said they were going to a cream house over the ‘line’ and upon arrival there one of the men tried calling someone via a cellphone but got no answer.

At this point, Madray said he grew suspicious and turned around the car.

But the man seated in the front seat put his car in ‘park’ and then it occurred to him that this was a robbery and he has to act quickly.

Madray exited the car and pulled a screwdriver in his defence but another man from the back seat exited the car and pulled a gun at him.

The father of two related that he hit the gun out of the bandit’s hand and a shot was discharged which struck him in the left scrotum and exited on the right side thigh.

Bleeding, Madray recalled he ran to the Railway Embankment and flagged down passing vehicles and it was a while before a taxi stopped and took him to Vigilance Police Station where he was issued a medical form and went to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The following day whilst still hospitalised, he received a call from the police stating that they found his car HC 7334 abandoned at Madewini on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

The car was retrieved and later handed over to him minus the floor mats, spare wheel, jack, a tablet and two cell phones.

His music system was intact and without the car remote, the vehicle was unable to drive after the engine was shut-off.

“If I didn’t think quickly and exited the car, I would have probably been dead, since I realised the men were up to no good. I was able to escape, although shot, because I felt they would have killed me and strip my car,” he said.

Madray is still paying a monthly installment for the car which he acquired 11 months ago and is recovering at home.

He does not have a choice but to return to work as a taxi driver when he is fit to do so in an effort to pay his bills and support his family.

On another note, Madray is of the opinion that the two men who were nabbed by the police during a failed hijacking of a taxi driver at Diamond, East Bank Demerara recently may be two of the three men who hijacked him.

FM
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