JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

WASA worker buried alive in trench

Family queries safety measures, authority promises probe

by

572 days ago
20231023

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 

Tragedy struck in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, af­ter a work­er from the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty died af­ter be­ing buried alive in­side a trench about a mile from his home.

Fa­ther of two Kern Eti­enne, 39, of Em­ba­cadere, San Fer­nan­do, died af­ter a mound of dirt col­lapsed on top of him as he was stand­ing in­side a 12-feet trench near the San Fer­nan­do Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty at Cipero Road, near the Cross Cross­ing Over­pass.

Eight of Eti­enne’s col­leagues fran­ti­cal­ly clawed through the dirt to try and save him, but by the time he was pulled out he was bleed­ing from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

Speak­ing at the fam­i­ly’s home yes­ter­day, his twin broth­er Kerdelle said Eti­enne was part of a team that was do­ing emer­gency re­pair works con­nect­ing a sew­er line from the Li­cens­ing Of­fice to a main at Cipero Road, San Fer­nan­do.

“I spoke to one of the co-work­ers, who said Kern was like his re­al broth­er. That co-work­er was the one who told Kern that the mud was cav­ing but then all the mud end­ed up on top of him. The co-work­er went down and tried to dig him out. About eight of them start­ed to dig him out and they raised his head. Then the back­hoe came,” Kerdelle said.

He said the in­for­ma­tion ob­tained by the fam­i­ly was that prop­er safe­ty mea­sures were not in place.

“They didn’t put things in place for them to work there. Blood run­ning through his ears and nose, plen­ty blood. He was not talk­ing, he was dead in the hole. When they car­ried him to the hos­pi­tal, they cov­ered back up the hole. Why?” Kerdelle asked.

Eti­enne’s moth­er, Joyce Grant-Roberts, said he was sup­posed to have start­ed work­ing on the project since last week but had ar­rived late for the job and was told to re­turn to the site yes­ter­day.

“They had sent him home. I told him when things hap­pen, trust God. I told him to be care­ful and go with God. He told me to send food for him,” she re­called.

Grant-Roberts said she was at home when she got a call that Eti­enne had an ac­ci­dent at work.

“They said to come to the hos­pi­tal. When I went up there with my son and daugh­ter the doc­tor came out and took us in a room. He told us Kern wasn’t re­spond­ing and they had tried all they could try to save him but couldn’t,” she re­called.

She said WASA of­fi­cials vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly and of­fered con­do­lences.

Eti­enne was mar­ried and had two chil­dren.

Robert-Grant said al­though they got back his clothes, his wal­let was still miss­ing.

In a state­ment late yes­ter­day, WASA con­firmed that Eti­enne was part of a crew car­ry­ing out emer­gency re­pair works on a sew­er pipeline in the area when the ac­ci­dent oc­curred, trap­ping him in the trench.

WASA said he was rushed to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment, where he suc­cumbed to his in­juries.

WASA ex­tend­ed sin­cere con­do­lences to Eti­enne’s fam­i­ly, friends and co-work­ers and promised to pro­vide all the re­quired sup­port.

WASA said a full-scale in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be con­duct­ed by the au­thor­i­ty and the rel­e­vant agen­cies.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored