Dead is Charles Anthony Simon, known as ‘Corporal’, of 111 Miles Mahdia, Potaro Road and of Lot 53, Kendall Street, Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara.
The man’s reputed wife Denise Vieira told Stabroek News from Mahdia yesterday that her husband and two other persons were working at an area known as, ‘Pamela Backdam’, around 2:30 pm yesterday afternoon when tragedy struck.
She said Simon and the two workers were working in a pit in the area and according to her, Simon was walking around in the crater when a tree located at the top of the pit fell on him. She said the man’s colleagues ran to his assistance but could not offer much help because of the weight of the tree.
She added that her husband died on the spot, noting that he sustained several broken bones.
Vieira said one of the men immediately called her mobile phone and informed her of the incident and she noted that the police and other residents of Mahdia ventured into the area to provide assistance. She said Simon’s body was moved out of the area sometime after 4 pm yesterday.
Vieira noted that Simon had been working as a miner for some 8 years, and according to her the couple recently purchased their own dredge. The dredging operation had been working since July this year, she noted.
The distraught woman expressed sadness at the passing of her husband and according to her, she recently had a series of ‘bad dreams’ but never envisaged yesterday’s incident.
In the past there had been fatal incidents in the mining areas across the country, several in Mahdia. Among these was the case of French geologist Guy Rigottier-Gois, a director of River Gold Guyana Inc, who died in the Konawaruk Backdam on April 3 last year.
On July 3, 2008, miner Phillip France, 21, of Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo died shortly after a sandbank in the Mazaruni area collapsed, burying him in the pit where he had been working.
And on October 12, last year machine operator Leon Clarke, 59, of Hopetown Village, West Coast Berbice, died at his Mahdia worksite. Police said the man was operating an excavator in a 40-feet deep pit when it caved in and covered him.
And in March this year, Karan Roopnarine, 32, of Triumph, East Coast Demerara and Keith Hibbeizt, 32, a Jamaican national who resided at Long Creek, Linden Soesdyke Highway, were both pinned at the bottom of a deep pit after its walls caved in while they worked in a mining pit at While Hole in Mahdia.
Charles Simon’s remains are at the Mahdia Hospital mortuary and he is expected to be buried sometime this week.
