Teen labourer dies after falling from scaffold

Dec 11, 2014 News

By Rabindra Rooplall
An 18-year-old labourer who fell from a scaffold at his worksite A. Forrester Lumber

The A. Forrester Lumber Yard construction site with scaffolds inside the building where Kishan Mahadeo fell from over 20 feet high hitting other scaffold on his way to the ground.

Yard Stewartville, West Coast Demerara was yesterday pronounced dead after being rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Dead is Kishan Mahadeo of Uitvlugt Side-Line Dam, Essequibo Islands-West Demerara.  Reports reveal that Mahadeo turned up to work before 8:00 hrs yesterday to continue work on the roof of a building on the construction site. He climbed about 20 feet to the top of a scaffold.
Kaieteur News was told that the accident occurred after he was asked to “catch a “tape” that was thrown at him.
In stretching to grab the object, he reportedly lost his balance and plummeted to the ground.
“He fell onto a forklift which also had a board before hitting the ground. When he fall he was crying out for pain.  He left the worksite crying… they take him to the Leonora Cottage Hospital.” One eyewitness claimed.
According to proprietor of the lumber yard Andrew Forrester, he was called by his contractor and notified of the scaffold mishap. He subsequently transported Mahadeo to the Leonora Hospital from where he was transferred to the GPHC.
One colleague disclosed that Mahadeo should have known better than to climb a scaffold wearing long boots when the place is wet and the season is rainy. “He should have left a $400 tape to fall down and don’t try to catch it, that was not worth his life or any injury. He was a good person, he does not trouble anybody and he now starting out in life and now he settle down with his girlfriend.”
According to the dead man’s mother-in-law Anita Deosarran, last Diwali night her daughter had disappeared with “Kishan” and she only recently searched for them and begged them to return home. She said the young couple was in a common law relationship and marriage would have followed.
“I know him since he was small, and he was always a good boy, and when they run away I decided to beg them to come back and start life. His mother died since he was four and his father is not really around but he was a good boy.” She lamented. She also related that he would have celebrated his nineteenth birthday this month.