Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Driver’s head crushed by tractor wheel
Tractor driver Ernest Phillips
The community of Lethem is mourning the death of 51-year-old Ernest Phillips, a driver attached to the Region Nine Democratic Council, who had his head crushed by the tractor he was driving early yesterday morning.
Phillips, of St. Ignatius, Central Rupununi, was returning to Lethem from a 95-mile trip to Karasabai when he reportedly lost control of the tractor after encountering a hump of road construction material on the road.
The incident occurred shortly after midnight Wednesday, a mere five minutes drive from Lethem.
Reports reaching this newspaper stated that Phillips was heading into Lethem when the tractor slammed into a huge pile of gravel that was left on the roadway, causing him to lose control of the tractor.
He was hurled from his seat and somehow fell under one of the large wheels of the tractor and had his skull crushed.
Three persons who were in the trailer of the tractor at the time claimed that they were asleep and could not say what actually transpired.
Phillips’s wife, Audinia, told this newspaper that she last saw her husband at about 08:00 hours on Wednesday when he was about to leave for Karasabai.
“He asked me for $1000 and I gave it to him,” she recalled.
The money was still in Phillips’ pocket when his body was recovered.
She was given the tragic news by officials of the Regional Administration and the Medex at Lethem.
This newspaper understands that the Regional Administration has undertaken to stand the funeral expenses.
Rupununi residents are up in arms for what they described as the lack of attention being paid by the authorities to the carefree nature of road building contractors, who would normally leave mounds of gravel on the roads.
“This was something that could have been avoided if the authorities were listening to the people and taking acting,” one resident said.
Phillips, who was employed by the Region Nine Administration for over 20 years, leaves to mourn his wife, two children and two grandchildren.
This is the second tragedy to hit the family within the past two years.
In December 2006, a family member was shot dead in his home at St. Ignatius.
Meanwhile, residents are also lamenting the non-functioning of the freezer at the Lethem mortuary.
The freezer has been out of operation for more than a month, forcing residents to source ice from as far as neighbouring Brazil in order to keep their dead relatives’ bodies fresh before burial.
“We do not have an ice house where a large quantity of ice is produced.
We have to go begging people for ice and sometimes we even have to go to Brazil to get ice,” another resident told this newspaper.
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