The five LMCS divers who were sucked into a 30-inch Paria Fuel Trading Company pipeline removed the inflatable plug that caused the tragedy when they were supposed to be on lunch.
This claim from Paria’s Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) Lead, Randolph Archibald, who gave evidence yesterday before the Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the tragic accident.
Archibald claimed the men returned from their lunch break early to remove the plug.
He said this is why Paria’s designated supervisor, Houston Marjadsingh, who is a Kenson employee, could not oversee their actions to stop them.
When he made the statement, Archibald was being questioned by the commission’s chairman, King’s Counsel Jerome Lynch, about Marjadsingh’s duty to supervise the work.
Archibald said Marjadsingh was supposed to check in on the LMCS employees every two hours.
But Lynch said that could not have been satisfactory supervision of such a dangerous task.
“However, in this particular instance, it is almost irrelevant how frequently he visited because when they broke ifor lunch was when the plugs were removed,” Archibald replied.
He said according to another Kenson employee also contracted by Paria, Andrew Dopson, the LMCS workers resumed work without informing Paria.
Paria has maintained that LMCS did not have permission to remove the inflatable plugs on that day, while LMCS said the removal was discussed and outlined in its method statement.
Archibald was also grilled on Marjadsingh’s qualifications to supervise the job and his ability to see whether the plugs were being removed by looking at the camera installed inside the hyperbaric chamber.
Questioned by the Commission’s counsel, senior counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Archibald said it was not Paria’s responsibility to ensure Marjadsingh could have a view of the plugs nor was it required on this job.
