Two dead, four hospitalized in East Bank electrocution

What was supposed to be a routine day turned out to be one riddled with grief and horror as two men met their deaths, and four became hospitalized after being electrocuted at Providence, East Bank Demerara.

Dead are 21-year-old Krishna Chand, of 98 Lusignan, East Coast Demerara; and Oliver Anton, 36, of Buxton Railway Line, East Coast Demerara. Brian Blair, of Buxton Village, is one among three other unnamed victims who have been hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). The deceased and injured men are contract employees of the Smart Tech Solutions Sales & Services entity at 70 KersaInt Park, La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara.

The men were working as part of a project for the Public Security Ministry and were installing poles which are to facilitate the CCTV cameras that came as part of Government’s Smart City Project. Both of the dead are from separate subcontractors working on the project. Reports are suggesting that the men were all moving a pole on which the CCTV cameras were to be mounted, when it came into contact with a high voltage pole in close proximity of the National Stadium. One eyewitness said that upon the collision happening, sparks flew from the high voltage utility pole and some of the men screamed out loudly.

This source indicated that they saw two men flung in separate directions while one of them was jerking about, with his body face down in the mud. They were all rushed to the GPHC where Chand and Anton were pronounced dead on arrival, while the others have been admitted. The bodies of Chand and Anton are now lying at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour. There have been rumours of the men not being attired in protective gears at the time of executing their tasks. When an official was contacted from Smart Tech Solutions Sales & Services, he refused to give his name, saying he has been instructed not to speak to the media. He also failed to give the names and addresses of the employees saying the men only work with them on a periodical contractual arrangement, and as such he was not acquainted with their particulars.

However, the now dead Anton’s child mother, Ronessia Stephens, told this newspaper that each time she visited him while he was installing CCTV camera, he was only clad in what appears to be a protective vest. Tuesday, Chand’s relatives were inconsolable as they lamented the demise of the young man. As they were overcome with grief, many lamented that he was young and had just started living life, and had just gotten the job about two months ago, and had great plans of saving up his earning as he wanted to begin a better way of living at an early age.

(Kaieteurnews)