A 14-year-old boy was electrocuted yesterday morning when he came into contact with a live electrical wire while attempting to pull down his kite.
Dead is Randolph Thornhill of Lot 44 Sideline Dam, Victoria, East Coast Demerara and a third form student of Ann’s Grove Secondary School.
At his home, distraught residents and relatives had gathered when this newspaper arrived.
A Guyana Power and Light (GPL) crew was also at the scene repairing the burst electrical wire that caused the teen’s death.
An emotional Anita Thornhill told Stabroek News that her son had “put up his kite the day before [on Sunday] and it disturb we whole night”. She said that when he woke up around at 6 am yesterday, she instructed him to take it down.
She recalled that she watched him from her second storey veranda to which the kite was earlier attached. She said he walked into an empty lot next door and then made his way to the roadway with the “balla” in hand.
Anita explained that her son threw the ball of twine over the electrical wire and later caught it. From all appearances she said the twine and the electrical wire “kissed” and the wire started to spark and subsequently burst.
She told Stabroek News that she ran to the lower flat to advise him to loose the wire but found him in the trench. The woman said that when she tried to pull him from the water she got shocked.
She said that from all appearances, after the wire started to spark it burst and on realizing what was happening Thornhill started to run in the direction of home but the “wire hit he from the back of his leg and pitch he into the trench”.
The woman said after she got shocked, persons standing nearby advised her not to touch the water. She said that later a man came and using a long spade, he managed to get the lad out of the water. According to Anita, her son was under water for at least ten minutes.
“We put he pun de road and we try rolling he and try pulling water out he mouth but he was lifeless,” the visibly terrified woman said adding that Thornhill was placed in his father’s vehicle and rushed to the Georgetown Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
She said that her son had been excited to attend school yesterday as he had some assignments to hand in.
Anita called on officials from the electricity company to check the electrical wires in the area and to fix a leaning post near her home.
Thornhill leaves to mourn his parents and four siblings.
