An 18-year-old labourer employed by Forrester Lumber and Building Complex is battling for his life at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) after a co-worker turned on a Cement Mixer unaware that the teen was inside the machine cleaning it.
Police Headquarters reported that the incident occurred on Friday afternoon at the company’s Stewartsville, West Coast Demerara location.
The victim has been identified as Ricardo Nandlall of South De Kinderen Line-Top, WCD.
Ranks found him at the hospital with an injury to his abdomen and his intestines protruding.
The 22-year-old co-worker who turned on the machine was detained by the police. Commander Errol Watts has indicated that the co-worker remain in custody, on the prisoner bench, as they await updates on the victim, “given at the moment his actions were not malicious but suspected to be that of negligence.”
The owner of the company, 47-year-old Andrew Forrester, told the cops that the young man went inside the machine to clean it while the ‘mixer operator’ had no idea he was inside and turned it on.
The young labourer then began to scream when others rushed and pulled him out. He was rushed to the Leonora Hospital and later referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he remains in a critical condition.
Investigations are ongoing.
This is why “lockout” tags are used!