An outing in the backdam for a family at Cotton Tree Village, West Berbice on Arrival Day Monday ended tragically after a 36-year-old father of three was crushed by an MF 290 tractor around 5:20 pm.
In the accident which occurred in a “split second,” Naraindra “Anand” Harry, a cane-harvester, was crushed by the back wheel of the tractor which ran over his stomach and face. He was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.
One of Harry’s relatives told Stabroek News that he, along with Harry and two other male relatives were under a shed while the rest of the family were swimming in the canal.
He said the driver of the tractor was coming from his rice field and stopped to speak to him while Harry accompanied him. He said that the driver who is unlicenced did not switch off the engine and had apparently released his foot from the clutch while the tractor was still in gear. This, he said, caused the tractor to move off quickly, hitting the man down in the process.
He said after the tractor ran over Harry, he did not respond and they covered his face with a cloth. According to the relative, they were about to return home and had already sent for the truck that had dropped them off earlier in the day. He said the driver is claiming that Harry pulled his [the driver’s] foot off the clutch but the relative maintains that is not the case. The man said it is a habit for them to go to the backdam to fish and picnic but that was the first time that Harry took his wife Kalifa Rohoman and his three children; Nicholas, 9, Neville, 7 and five-year-old Nikesha.
Rohoman told this newspaper that she was still in the water with other relatives when she heard screaming and someone asking if “he dead?” he dead?” She said she rushed out of the water and saw her husband lying on the dam and his face was covered in blood.
She said she started to panic and her relatives sent her home in a vehicle with her children and told her they were taking him to the hospital. In tears, she said she knew her husband was dead when the persons who had accompanied him to the hospital returned and started to cry. (Shabna Ullah)
