Since Kern Etienne’s tragic and untimely death in a trench at a WASA worksite near the San Fernando Licensing Office compound on October 22 last year, not much has been done to ease his family’s grief.
Their struggle to come to terms with the circumstances of his death—buried in mud after the trench collapsed on top of him—was made worse by the challenges they have faced since then with the loss of their sole breadwinner.
Etienne was a single parent who left behind two daughters, Kiara and Kimora, ages 15 and five, who are now being cared for by their paternal grandmother.
This family will get partial closure at best from the news that the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) has filed a formal complaint in the Industrial Court against WASA for six breaches of the OSH Act.
WASA has admitted that its internal investigation found procedural and safety deficiencies at the job site and steps have been taken to ensure health and safety processes and procedures are adopted and adhered to throughout going forward.
This is a significant development in terms of preventing accidents so that other families don’t have to go through what Etienne’s loved ones are still experiencing.
What is concerning is how little support or information has been provided to the bereaved family in the eight months since that tragic accident.
According to Etienne’s mother, Joyce Grant-Roberts, WASA had not informed the family about the latest developments.
There are, however, some striking parallels, which are hard to ignore, between this incident and the Paria Fuel diving tragedy well beyond the fact that both involve state entities.
In the case of LMCS divers—Fyzal Kurban, Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar—who died after they became trapped inside a Paria pipeline, their families and lone survivor Christopher Boodram are still awaiting closure.
Although the Commission of Enquiry into the Paria tragedy has long been completed, there has been no mention of compensation for the widows and children of these divers.
This was a matter of concern for CoE chairman Jerome Lynch, KC. Just before he handed over the 380-page final report on the tragedy to President Christine Kangaloo, he said at a public briefing that it would have been an “act of kindness and human decency” to have made an ex-gratia payment to the families without accepting any liability.
As important as it is to get to the truth in these tragedies, it is equally important to provide tangible support to the families who have been deprived of wage earners.
No amount of money can compensate for the loss of these husbands and fathers in avoidable industrial accidents. For all of these families since these accidents, they have been forced to face the reality of having their healthy, able-bodied loved ones snatched away in the most agonising circumstances.
That alone is a good enough reason to ensure some gestures of caring and support are extended to these bereaved families, to help ease the pain so they can get past the loss.
The cold, hands-off stance of WASA and Paria officials in these matters is unacceptable.
Must these families wait until every single legal matter is completed? Are these state entities more concerned about their finances than the well-being of these families?
All these months later, their silence on these matters is deafening.