At least eighteen persons have lost their lives as a result of workplace accidents across the country for 2018 and 2019.
Based on reports carried in this newspaper, of the 18 work-related deaths, nine were from the mining sector, which recorded the highest number.
Deaths and injuries to workers providing services to the utilities sector followed.
Six of the deaths in mining sector occurred for this year as opposed to five in 2018.
However, the progress and results of all these investigations remain unknown as the Department of Labour has not been forthcoming.
Numerous approaches by this newspaper for a comment on the occupational health and safety in the country proved futile.
Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle when approached said due to policies at the Ministry of Social Protection he is not permitted to speak to the media. He said that he must have permission from the minister to speak, or, only the minister can speak on the issue
When Stabroek News reached out to Junior Minister within in the Ministry Keith Scott in November, he declined to speak and failed to answer when asked if he would permit Ogle to speak.
He said that his reason for not speaking is because Stabroek News has in the past misrepresented his views and has failed to publish his letters to the editor.
Mining
In the mining sector for the year 2019, the death of Geologist Ryan Taylor at Australian-owned company, Troy Resources sent shockwaves across the country.
Taylor was part of a group of employees working on the construction of a ‘bench’ in a mining pit at Troy Resources’ Karouni, Region Seven operations. There was a slippage, which allegedly led to him falling and being covered by the rubble resulting in his death. The mining accident occurred sometime between 1 and 4 am on October 8.
A ‘bench’ in the mining industry refers to a path that is created to allow a machine or vehicle to access a mining pit.
The death of trucker, Atewick De Freitas, called ‘Etto’, a resident of Kuru Kuru, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, was also recorded during the year. De Freitas was employed by Trail Boss Interior Trucking Services, the company which is contracted by Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) to transport fuel to its mine. He died after the fuel tanker that he was operating overturned along the Buck Hall, Tapir Trail, while transporting fuel to the mine.
Other deaths in the sector for 2019 included young miners Deon Henry, a miner of Baramita who died after the pit in which he was working caved in and Emanuel Narine, an 18-year-old miner who was killed after the mining pit he was working in at Region Ten, caved in. Romeo Ruben, a 17-year-old miner of Imbaimadai, Upper Mazaruni River, was also killed after a wall in the mining pit he was working in collapsed and crushed him.
Locus Backdam
Sixty-year-old Retta Samuels also died while searching for gold in a mining pit at Locus Backdam, Arakaka, North West District. The walls of the pit suddenly caved in and covered her and as a result she was crushed to death.
During 2018, at least five persons died in work-related mining accidents. Among those who died were two miners; Deon Sproston, called ‘Jersey Joe,’ 36, a miner of Mabaruma, North West District, and of Lot 133 Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, and Shawn (only name provided), a resident of Aishalton Village, Rupununi.
The miners were killed after a mining pit caved in at Mowasi Backdam, Konawaruk, Potaro, where the Ministry of Natural Resources says they were engaged in illegal mining on a concession. A mining pit of 24 feet in depth was found on the land, police said.
Weeks later, another miner, Lennox Douglas, 33, a resident of Canvas City, Wismar, Linden, died after the pit he was working in also collapsed. That mine was also located at Mowasi Backdam, Konawaruk, Potaro. Douglas and two other men were working in the mining pit. A source had informed this newspaper that the surviving miners reported to the police that they were all in the mining pit, operating a four-inch dredge, when a significant portion of the wall collapsed and struck Douglas on his head.
In June 2018, a miner at Imbaimadai, Region Seven, died while he was jetting. The miner identified as Elmo Adams was carrying out the task assigned to him when one of the sides of the mining pit caved in. His colleagues rushed to his rescue but he was covered by the rubble. Adams was subsequently pulled out and rushed to the community health post where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Forty four year-old Eleen Figuera was also crushed to death at Arakaka in a mining accident after a section of a mining pit she was working in collapsed. Figuera, a punter of Two Miles Arakaka, North West District and three of her colleagues were searching for gold when a section of the mining pit suddenly caved in and covered her.
In 2015, a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) set up by President David Granger in wake of continuing deaths in the mining sector due to unsafe practices, had determined that many operators practice “short cuts” in the excavation of mining pits, which lead to greater instability, especially in the rainy season, Stabroek News had reported.
The inquiry also found that worker inexperience, lack of training, lack of technical inputs and corruption at some levels of the GGMC, contribute to the dangers faced by workers in the sector.
The report stressed that strong “…pressure for gold production at the expense of health and safety exists, thus exposing workers to unacceptable risk and danger.”
Electrocution
Between 2018 and 2019 several workers, who are employed by contractors to execute jobs for government agencies and utility companies perished in worksite related accidents.
Just last week two workers from a Russian-owned bauxite mining company suffered electrical shock while carrying out works on a pump.
The men Glendon Timmerman, 25, a pump operator of Linden and Romeo Thomas, truck operator of Kwakwani, Linden were carrying out maintenance work in the Kurubuka mines on a pump, when an electrician connected the power to the pump unknowing to them resulting in them being shocked. The men were hospitalised for a few days.
Earlier in 2019, Krishna Chand, 18, of Lot 98 Lusignan Pasture, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and Anthon (only name given), of Buxton, ECD died after coming into contact with a live electrical wire as they were installing security cameras in the compound of the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Two of their colleagues Aftab Umrao, of 96 West Half, Lusignan, ECD and Brian Culley, of Vigilance, ECD, were also injured in the accident. At the time, Chand and Umrao were employed by Smart Tech Solutions, which was contracted by the Ministry of Public Security to execute works.
Andrea Fullerton, 21, of 155 Patrick Dam, Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, Berbice, who was an employee of Ramoutar and Sons Contracting Services, which had been contracted by Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to do maintenance work also died after coming into contact with a live wire.
Senior Superintendent Calvin Brutus, who is ‘C’ Division Commander, said police were told that Fullerton was clearing the utility pole of wires when he was electrocuted. Brutus explained that an unprotected part of Fullerton’s right arm came into contact with the live wire. At the time he was working on a utilty pole at Section B, Clonbrook, East Coast Demerara.
In addition, a contracted worker attached to the Central Housing and Planning Authority was electrocuted after a crane that was being used to move piles for a housing project at ‘C’ Field, Sophia, came into contact with an overhead live wire. The deceased, Elroy Haynes, a father of five of Kiltairn Village, Corentyne, Berbice, was engaged in infrastructural works under the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme.
Haynes was employed as a general foreman attached to Annirude Ramcharitar Construction Co, the entity which has been contracted by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to complete works under the project.
Also in 2019, at least two workers sustained severe electric shock while working at construction sites.
The workers, Fazeer Hassan, 30, of Lot 5 D Persaud Street, Rose Hall Town and 48-year old Jeoranie Mezquia Gonzalez of Kitty, Georgetown were both shocked after coming into contact with electrical wires on separate occasions.
Stabroek News reported that both Hassan and Gonzalez were hospitalised after sustaining burn injuries.
According to one of Hassan’s fellow workers, they were at the time placing steel rods on a building when the rods came into contact with the main electrical wire “and it touch he and he fall down.” While, Gonzalez, police said, was outside the building on the eastern side on a scaffold of about 24 feet in height, handling a metal pipe about 20 feet in length, when it came into contact with the electrical line outside the building and he was shocked.
For 2018, a resident of Kitty was electrocuted at Dryshore, Essequibo Coast. Orwayne Cozier, 24, of Lot 30 Dowding Street, Kitty, Georgetown, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Suddie Public Hospital, and his colleague Asif Azeez, 28, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
Cozier, who was employed with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, was speaking with Azeez, who was employed with Ramotar and Sons Contracting firm which was tasked with running power lines overhead, when the mishap occurred.
Vibert Balgobin, one of the contracting firm’s employees, was on a utility pole trying to get wire from one post to the next. As he was doing so, Cozier and Azeez were on the ground assisting by handling the spool rack that was feeding the wire to Balgobin.
It was during this process, police said, that the wire made contact with a live GPL cable, jammed a transformer and shocked both Cozier and Azeez. Both men were sent flying and landed some distance away.
During the year also, a GTT Technician, David Kunath was shocked when he came into contact with a GPL transformer, resulting in him being pitched from the pole he was working on at New Garden Street, Queenstown, Georgetown.
After spending months in the Georgetown Public Hospital nursing third degree burns, Kunath succumbed hours after he was discharged from the hospital.
A GPL worker, Nara Singh, of Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, in May 2018 also suffered burns while undertaking line maintenance duties in the vicinity of Stabroek Market.
The power company in a statement had stated that at the time of the accident maintenance activities were being carried out on one of their 13.8 kV feeders. As a result of the accident the employee was badly burnt.
This newspaper was told that after coming into contact with the wire, Singh was tossed at least three feet away from the point of impact. He was then picked up by his co-workers who placed him in a minibus and rushed him to hospital.
Construction Site accidents
There were several construction site accidents for the last two years.
For this year, it was reported that labourer Devon Williams, 31, fell from the seventh floor of the building under construction while he was transporting concrete blocks. Williams was at the time working at the Pegasus Hotel expansion project work site. He has been hospitalised and underwent surgery since the fall.
In 2018, a Corentyne labourer was left in a critical condition after he fell from the building which once housed the National Psychiatric Hospital located in Fort Canje, Berbice. Christopher Singh, 20, of Lot 14 Maida Village, Corentyne was rushed to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital after he fell from the second floor while in the process of demolishing the old building. He had sustained a major head injury, broken bones and other injuries about his body.
While on duty, he along with others were employed with Bansingh Guyadeen to demolish the building.
In February 2018, a father of one also died after the concrete wall of a bathroom which was under renovation crashed down on him at Good Hope, ECD. The deceased was identified as Dilip Rampersaud called ‘Big Head’, 28, a driver of Lot 30, La Bonne Intention Railway Embankment, ECD.
Stabroek News was told that the incident occurred while Rampersaud and one of his colleagues was clearing rubble in the Good Hope yard.
In the marine sector, a 30-year-old Philippines national was crushed to death during an incident at a city wharf. The dead man was identified as Reynald Jr. Balaoy Manuel. The incident occurred around 10:40 pm at a city wharf in Water Street, Georgetown while Manuel and other crew members were on board motor vessel FWN Rapide I. “During the process of making ready the twin deck cover, the wire rope burst and caused the deck to fall into the hatch,” the police said.
Aviation
For the aviation sector at least four accidents occurred during the last two years. One of the four accidents was fatal and claimed the life of Captain Randy Liverpool.
Liverpool’s aircraft went down in Eteringbang, Region Seven, resulting in his death. The aircraft was registered to Domestic Airways and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) had said that the plane crashed while approaching the Eteringbang Airstrip around 5.45 pm.
The police had said that the aircraft was travelling from Ekereku to Eteringbang and was about five minutes away from the airstrip when it went down. A loud explosion was heard and fire was seen coming from the aircraft.
On February 18, 2018 a Guyana Adventist Medical Aviation Services plane crash-landed in the wetlands area behind Nismes on the West Bank of Demerara, with two persons and a dead body onboard.
The plane went down about 13 miles from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport at Timehri. The aircraft, a single-engine Cessna, was returning from a medical mission in the North West District and was at the time headed to the Eugene F Correia International Airport.
The pilot, Lincoln Gomez and policeman Michael Grimond were both rescued from the crash. Gomez suffered a broken jaw, Grimond sustained a broken leg.
Last month, Captain Bernard Singh who was piloting Piper PA-31 aircraft crashed after taking off from Aricheng and destined for Ekereku Top.
Singh was found with cuts and bruises about his body and was given a medical checkup by the medic attached to the team that found him. He and the team flew out to the coast just after 4 pm, and he was taken to a medical institution for further treatment.
At the time of crash, Singh was the lone occupant of the aircraft, which carried the registration number 8R-HAI belonging to Captain Orlando Charles, who
