Minister Martin: ‘There will be a full and thorough investigation into what went wrong.’
By Lesroy W. Williams
Observer Reporter
(Conaree, SKB)- The collapse of a bridge under construction at midday Wednesday left one man dead and two others hospitalized. The government has promised a full investigation into the cause of the incident.
Vincentian national Allick Toney, 64, was killed, and Guyanese nationals Ian ‘Shatta’ Warde and Mortland Watterton, were injured and hospitalized after a bridge being built along the west by-pass road near the Robert Llewelyn Bradshaw Airport roundabout collapsed about 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday May 14.
The work was dubbed West Basseterre Bypass Road Project. The contractor is Professional Technologies (Anguilla) Ltd. The engineering firm is Halcrow Group Ltd.
The project now suffers a major setback with the collapse of the bridge.
Allick, Ian and Mortland, all of whom were employed by WIN Aggregate Ltd., working on West Basseterre Bypass Project, had no idea when they left for work on that day that such tragedy would strike.
Scores of curious onlookers, the Police and the National Emergency Management Agency Search and Rescue Team, gathered at the accident site in dismay at what had happened. They had many questions and concerns, but there were no answers.
The dismal faces of the workers was enough to tell the story. One of their colleagues was dead and his body removed by hearse to Jenkins Funeral Home at 1 p.m.
“It’s just a bad day, a sad day. I really miss my co-worker,” lamented Dexter Francis, who was working on the deck of the bridge at the time when it collapsed.
