50 sugar workers injured after lorry topples

More than 50 sugar workers were on Wednesday morning injured when the lorry – GRR 2574 – in which they were passengers turned over on the Zee Zight Public Road, West Coast Berbice.
The incident occurred at about 05:05h while the men were on their way to work. At the time of the accident, there were 55 persons at the back of the lorry and the supervisor and driver in front. The crew, that forms the 6B2 gang, was on its way to bath Settlement to harvest cane.
A woman at Lot 5 Zee Zight Public Road, whose concrete fence was destroyed as a result of the impact from the lorry, said she heard a loud sound and was of the opinion that something had happed on the road.
“So I run outside and I did not expect to see the truck in my yard and so much of workers, some of them lying down and they taking out some of them; I couldn’t look at it,” she said.
Reports are that the driver was attempting to stop the lorry when he lost control and ran off the road.
An eyewitness to the accident, Khemraj Hunt, had a good opportunity to see what transpired. He had missed his lorry and when GRR 2574 was passing, he yelled out for the driver to stop and take him along. He explained that as the driver attempted to stop, he experienced brake failure and as a result, all the wheels locked.
He said the driver also attempted to avoid hitting a parked truck laden with paddy on the road shoulder.
“After the brakes lock off, he tried to save the truck because anytime he did hit the truck is dead all two of them in the front seat would have dead. But by the road was wet, the truck just keep on sliding and when it reach on the concrete then it turn over. I throw down the food bag and I run to assist… they start jumping out from the side of the truck,” he related.
The injured men were rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital by lorries, private cars, vans, the hospital’s ambulance and the Blairmont Estate ambulance.
Most of them were treated and sent away. However, two were admitted because of the extent of their injuries.
Those admitted are Fazeem Latiff and Rashad Alli, both of Cotton Tree.
Meanwhile, after the lorry came to a halt, there was confusion.
One of the workers onboard the lorry when it turned over, Kadar Nauth, noted that he was sitting on the side of the lorry that landed on the ground, hence he was at the bottom.
So I had to relax and let them boys come out first. “But good kick and so catch me,” he revealed.
Several other workers also gave accounts of being trapped momentarily on the tray of the lorry.
The driver of the lorry who is from the same village, was also treated and sent away after being pinned in the driver’s seat when the lorry crashed.
This is the second time the lorry turned over with workers inside.
In 2016, the said lorry turned over while transporting some workers from one field to another at Blairmont. No one was seriously injured.