Three months ago 19-year-old David Smartt was electrocuted while working at a sawmill in Rosignol. Today, the sawmill is closed, the owner is no longer in the country and Smartt’s mother feels cheated of justice.
“Justice suppose to be done,” were the repeated words of Pamela Smartt, when she spoke to this newspaper yesterday evening via telephone. On August 23, around 2 pm, Smartt, of Welcome Street, Rosignol, West Bank Berbice, died while he was working at Ousman and Son’s Sawmill.
An autopsy had confirmed that he died of cardiac arrest as a result of electrocution. Following the incident, an investigation was launched by the Ministry of Labour since the sawmill failed to report the young man’s death. The police had also launched an investigation.
According to Pamela, she had met the owner of the sawmill to discuss compensation on several occasions but at the last meeting, “They said they can’t come to a conclusion because they bankrupt and they don’t have grants to get wood. He said that he brother gah get a say and he deh in the states so he can’t do nothing.”
And when she visited the labour office in New Amsterdam to get the help of the ministry in acquiring compensation, “They saying they want to know when he [her son] draw he first salary and he last salary. Me ain’t know them thing me can’t remember.”
But now Pamela is left feeling cheated as the sawmill where her son worked since he was 12 years old is now closed and the owner is no longer in Guyana. “The sawmill close for a while. They say that the sawmill owner wife tek in and he gone and tek her outside to the states,” Pamela said.
The sawmill she said was operational for a while after the owner left. It was managed by a relative but a short time later, it came to a close. She could not remember exactly when the sawmill stopped operating.
Smartt was the sole breadwinner of his family and now Pamela said she is “trying by the grace of God”. “I does catch lil work on and off,” she added.
“It’s not a easy thing to lose a child. It’s not an easy thing at all,” the woman stated. “Justice suppose to be done. He leave to go to work. That is not fair.” Pamela bemoaned the fact that nothing had been done since her son’s death.
The last word on the Ministry of Labour’s investigation was that a private electrician was supposed to inspect the sawmill and submit his findings. Charges were also recommended to be brought against the owner of the sawmill for not reporting the incident to the Occupational Safety and Health Department of the Ministry of Labour. Failure to report a death on the job carries a $25,000 fine.
