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Sophia man perishes in mining pit collapse
By Phylicia Richardson
Dead: Omett Samuels
As mining pit casualties continue to mount and increasingly concern authorities, yet another miner has lost his life in the line of duty.
Dead is 32-year-old Omett Samuels, of ‘B’ Field, Sophia.
According to reports, Samuels was working in a pit at Toroparu Backdam, Cuyuni River, when the walls of the pit came crashing down on him. After being buried for some time, his lifeless body was pulled out by co-workers.
According to Shellon Fraser, the man’s wife of over five years and mother of his two sons, her husband left their Sophia home to go to the backdam about six weeks ago. She said that he had been working as a miner “for a long time”, even before they had gotten together.
She recalled having her last conversation with him on Tuesday night. And as was customary, he encouraged her to be safe and to ‘look out’ for their children.
He had also authorized her to collect money for the children’s school shopping and was supposed to call her back on Wednesday, but never did. After making several unsuccessful calls to the administration of the company he was working with concerning the money, she had finally given up. Two hours later she received a call from someone who claimed to be the manager.
He then broke the news about her husband’s demise. It was just around 5:30pm on Wednesday.
She recounted that her immediate words to the manager were “you making joke, because I spoke to him just last night. Is money he called me fuh seh he send home Tuesday night fuh buy school clothes. I called about four times Wednesday but got no answer…”
She opined that “they (company) had to know he died ever since”, and refused to answer her calls. She added that they later returned her call when her husband’s body was already on its way to the city.
The clearly distraught woman expressed her still lingering disbelief at her husband’s death, even though she went to identify his body at the Lyken Funeral Parlour yesterday morning.
Her understanding of the incident, from what was related to her by the manager, was that, Samuels was working in the pit when an engine became blocked. He then bent down to remove whatever the foreign material was from the engine when the walls of the pit, which was cracked, came crashing down upon him.
Frantic efforts by co-workers to save him were futile.
Fighting to hold back the tears, Fraser described her partner as a very loving and jovial person. “He was such a nice person, that how he dead deh it real terrible.”
Even as investigations into this latest mining pit tragedy continue, a post mortem is expected to be done today.
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