A 66-year-old Armadale, West Coast Berbice woman was devastated when she heard a loud impact on Saturday and discovered that a bulldozer had crashed into her unoccupied one-flat two-bedroom concrete house nearby.
Irene Lachman told Stabroek News that the bulldozer had apparently finished “grading dirt” on a large plot of land behind her house and at the side of it around 5.30 pm when the accident occurred.
The land and the machine belong to businesspersons who live close by and they have since contacted her to visit their office to “make a decision on the matter.” Her son, Omesh, was planning to go later.
Omesh told this newspaper that he reported the matter at the Fort Wellington Police Station and officers visited about an hour later to conduct investigations.
The operator of the bulldozer was taken into custody and subsequently released without being charged. He said when he got to the scene the operator was still there and “me keep asking him what happened and he din answer.”
Afterwards, they heard persons saying that the operator “lost control…” According to one relative, “If he [driver] gat to grade sand he should do it in he own place. Me never know sand does grade in house.”
When this newspaper visited yesterday the bulldozer was still sitting in the house with the walls broken and the roof on top of it.
The still shaken Lachman who was in tears, insisted that she wanted a house back on her land. “I have plenty grandchildren and I was keeping the house for them.”
She recalled that she had just returned from a funeral and was changing her clothing when she heard the crashing sound. She peeped out and saw the house, which she said was “strong,” falling to pieces.
The woman ran outside but still did not see the bulldozer and wondered how it happened.
She got confused and “run back in the house.” By then Omesh and another son, Ramesh, 43 and other persons rushed to the scene.
