Dear Editor,
I am a son of the relative that employed Wayne Benjamin who died in a mining pit cave-in near Mahdia, and just for the record he was never employed to work as a mechanic in the interior. As a matter of fact prior to working with my father he was a bus conductor. However he possessed a certain attitude that caused my father to like him and love him even like his own son.
Based on the reports I am getting and the articles which appeared in Stabroek News, it seems that the family is dissatisfied, although over six hundred thousand dollars was spent transporting, preserving and burying the deceased.
The fact of the matter is that my father was not in the immediate vicinity when the accident happened; he was actually preparing their supper, and hearing the commotion he ran to the scene. Some of those who were able to move about were running around frantically, others were also part of the disaster.
When ‘Junior’ (as we called him) was recovered, he was dead, but there’s no way to call a family out of the blue and tell them that their son is dead; only a heartless, thoughtless person would do something like that. So for that reason the family was told that their son was injured, that the situation was critical and they should expect the worst. The family which gave them this information never called them back to tell them that their son had died.
After the body was taken to Mahdia and the statements were taken by the police, the body became the property of the Government of Guyana pending an investigation, which primarily involved an autopsy. However, for some reason the freezer the body was placed in for about three days was not on, and this led to decomposition. The vehicle that usually transports bodies to Georgetown refused to bring the body, because the police owed the person for past jobs of such a nature. However, because he was acquainted with my father he decided to do it because my father is a credible person. He offered to do it for $360,000, accepting a one hundred thousand dollars down payment.
The Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security is currently investigating my father, but certainly the family will not receive any large sums as compensation, although if found guilty of being negligent my father will receive a sanction.
It was also noted that the family is ‘bad talking’ our family for not attending the funeral, but why should we attend when we were already at the wake and they looked at us with scorn.
I had to write because there is so much that is being left unsaid and it’s unfair to the readers of this newspaper.
Yours faithfully,
Trevon Chichester
