Fifty workers from GuySuCo’s Blairmont Estate were injured early yesterday morning, after the truck they were travelling in hit two horses at Bohemia, Corentyne and ended up in a canal.
Both horses reportedly died on the spot, while three of the workers were admitted as patients at the New Amsterdam Hospital. The other workers were treated and sent away.
Those hospitalised were Waffazeen Karim, 35, also called ‘Ramzan,’ a field foreman of No. 2 Settlement, Blairmont, West Berbice; Fenton Henry, 41, of No. 5 Village; and Hemchand Persaud, 24, No. 4 Settlement, Blairmont. Stabroek News learnt that Persaud suffered injuries to his neck while Karim and Henry sustained a broken left leg and right arm, respectively. When Stabroek News contacted Karim yesterday, arrangements were being made to have him and Henry transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The truck was at the time taking the workers to the Albion Estate around 5:15am when the accident occurred, in the vicinity of the Bohemia Primary School on the East Berbice, Corentyne, Public Road.
Reports are that after the driver, Lloyd Evans, hit the two horses, which were in the middle of the road, he became pinned to the steering wheel. As a result, the driver lost control, resulting in the truck ending up in the canal. The front of the vehicle was submerged after the accident.
Karim, who was sitting in the cabin of the truck with the driver, said he heard a loud impact but did not see what the truck had hit and thought the vehicle had suffered a blow-out. He and the driver were both trapped in the cabin.
Some of the workers who were in the tray rushed to render assistance to him and the driver. He said it took the workers about half hour before they were finally able to prise the mangled cabin off of him.
He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and later learnt that a tractor had to be used to rescue Evans from the wreck. Among the other injured workers were Wodesh ‘Disco’ Deonarine, 32, a “checker boy,” of No. 4 Settlement, who sustained a broken right leg; and Kenneth Joseph, 42, a cane-harvester of No.8 Village, who suffered a broken right arm.
All the workers were rushed to the hospital by ambulances from the estate and the NA hospital.
General Manager of the Blairmont Estate, Yudhisthira Mana told Stabroek News that the workers had completed their crop and were going to the Albion Estate for the fourth day to work as “backup.”
Meanwhile, in a statement, GuySuCo said it is closely monitoring the workers who were injured in the accident. “Officials of the Corporation were present at the hospital monitoring the situation and stand ready to provide whatever assistance is needed,” GuySuCo said, while adding that it regretted this incident and wished the affected workers a quick recovery.
