Koker attendant crushed by sluice door 3-ton weight

Jun 07, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – In the early hours of Thursday at the Woodlands/Farm Sluice, East Coast Demerara, the body of a koker attendant was found pinned under a 3-ton boulder that serves as the counterweight of the apparatus.

The deceased, Leevorn McGarrel

Dead is 54-year-old Leevorn Stanford McGarrel, known as ‘Shortman’ and ‘Hacket’, of High Dam, Mahaicony, ECD. McGarrel was last seen alive on Wednesday evening when he departed his home to report for his shift at the sluice, which means that the incident must have occurred at some point between approximately 18:00 hrs on June 5^th and 06:40 hrs on June 6^th, when his body was discovered under the counterweight by his son-in-law, Llavar Welch, who is also employed by MMA/ADA at the same site.

McGarrel was the only attendant present at the sluice at the time of the incident, and it appears that the wires that attached the counterweight to the sluice ruptured while the deceased was attempting to operate the device, resulting in it falling and crushing the unsuspecting attendant. After Welch found the body and identified it as his father-in-law, it was removed from beneath the counterweight and examined, upon which “visible crush injuries” were observed. The body was subsequently taken to the Mahaicony Hospital, where a doctor confirmed and certified it as deceased. Further investigation is underway to determine that that resulted in the untimely death of McGarrel.

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