An aspiring electrician at the Guyana Water Incorporated Linden treatment plant was electrocuted during the course of duties yesterday morning.
Twenty-one-year-old Rhett Cole was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) around nine am.
According to Susan Rhius-Thorman, the man’s mother, the company’s staff told her that her son was hit by 440 volts of electricity while working. “They said that he was with senior staff working and all the security measures were in place and they don’t know how that happened,” she added. The woman also said she thought it strange that the company’s officials said that all systems had been shut off yet her son was electrocuted.
“Something had to be wrong; something had to be definitely wrong for my child to be killed,” the distraught woman said.
This afternoon, GWI said that according to its Divisional Operations Manager, Rawle Friday, Cole was part of a team tackling an electrical phasing problem at the McKenzie Water Treatment Plant with assistance from technicians from the Linden Electricity Company Incorporated (LECI), at the time of the incident.
GWI said it is awaiting reports from the Company’s Occupational Health and Safety Officer and the Linden Police Force for further details on the “unfortunate” incident. The water utility said it cannot provide details on the matter until a full investigation has been conducted by the police and the Company’s own Health and Safety Officer.
It revealed that GWI’s acting Chief Executive, attorney-at-law, Nigel Niles visited the scene.
“We are deeply saddened by this and wish to extend our heartfelt sympathy to Rhett’s family. GWI will provide all assistance to the Linden Police with their investigation”, he said.
Rhius-Thorman told Stabroek News that she did not expect her son to go to work yesterday. She said she waved at him when she passed his bedroom doorway, as he had been doing his morning devotions. “I hail him off and he waved back at me, the next thing I saw him brushing his teeth and he was out. I thought he was going to stay and help me do the pepperpot today because I had to go to Georgetown,” she said.
The woman said she was at Cole’s sister’s Silvertown, Wismar home dealing with a family matter when the woman received a phone call from the LHC, and she got the news that her son had been hospitalised. Rhius-Thorman said she immediately rushed to the emergency unit but was prevented from entering the room. A nurse subsequently told her that her son had been shocked but that they were doing their best for him. Shortly after, she was escorted into the room and was told that he had succumbed. “They said that he was breathing but they were not getting heartbeat, like the shock went straight to his heart,” she related.
On hearing the news, there was not a dry eye among the workers who had gathered at the LHC, all of whom expressed shock at the incident. One employee said that the incident happened in the “wink of an eye.” He said that he had just spoken with Cole and had left the location to take the young man’s bicycle to be repaired when he received a call indicating that he was shocked and was critical.
Back at the family’s Blue Berry Hill home Rhius-Thorman tried to hold back her tears. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth among neighbours in the school compound. “Why the good ones does get these wrong deal, anything you coulda get Rhett to do without a fuss or frown,” teacher Lois Mosley wailed, adding that it was only the night prior that they were having a discussion about the young man.
Rhius-Thorman told this newspaper that her son was a graduate of the Linden Technical Institute and had been attached to the water company through an apprenticeship, from which he graduated last week. She said that he told her that he had been informed that he could remain at the job until January 2011. The woman burst into tears saying that her son wouldn’t have wanted her to be distressed, adding that “I could hear him saying if this is how it had to happen, well that’s it.” She then looked around her house and commented that her son had done the holiday cleaning and decorating. She then pointed to a black dog sitting at the back door, saying that he had kept it since a puppy.
Rhius-Thorman said the water company had assured her that it was prepared to assist her during her bereavement. “My son…loved what he was doing and never missed a day at work,” she said.
Cole was the third of five siblings and the second of two boys. He would have celebrated his 22nd birthday on January 13.
Meanwhile, GWI said that upon hearing of the passing of the trainee, Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali extended deepest sympathy to the family and loved ones of Cole.
