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Boy, 14, perishes in kite-flying mishap
Easter Monday is less than a month away, but sadly 14-year-old Randolph Thornhill will not be around
Dead: Randolph Thornhill
to fly his kite again. The lad died tragically early yesterday morning while tending to a kite outside his yard at Victoria, East Coast Demerara.
The kite twine had become entangled with the electric wire that ran in front of his house, sending high voltage through his body, which was hurled into a nearby trench.
It took several brave villagers and his mother between 10 to 15 minutes to pull his lifeless body from the trench, but by then Thornhill appeared to be already dead. This was subsequently confirmed at the hospital.
The young man’s death sent shockwaves throughout the village, where a number of boys his age contemplated their kite-flying plans.
When this newspaper arrived in Victoria yesterday, technicians from the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated were reconnecting severed wires.
Randolph’s mother, Anita Thornhill, told members of the media at her home hours after the tragedy that the young man had put up the kite since Sunday and awoke early yesterday morning to take it down.
That was just after 06:00 hours while Ms. Thornhill was in her home preparing breakfast.
Kaieteur News was told that the former Ann’s Grove Secondary School student had hurled the kite string over the two live wires on the poles in front of his house. From all appearances, the wires were slack and they came together, causing a high voltage to flow through the twine that Randolph Thornhill was holding. The two wires eventually became severed and were lying dangerously in the trench that the young man was hurled into.
An alarm was raised and Anita Thornhill responded immediately after sensing that her son might have been in trouble. It did not take her long to realise that indeed he was. His entire body was submerged in the water and no one knew exactly where he was.
“They say he in the trench, so I go over the bridge…to see if he coming up to get fuh grabble he,” the woman said.
But thankfully someone at the scene persuaded her not to touch the water.
“Was a rastaman say, ‘no, no girl, don’t hold he, move from deh, you gun get shock’,” Thornhill related.
But her motherly instinct took over as without thinking, she saw a live electric wire in the trench and grabbed hold of it to pull it out.
But the voltage hit her and fortunately she managed to let it go before she too was injured.
Eventually, other persons converged on the scene and using a long stick, they eventually located Thornhill’s body and pulled it from the water.
“He was in there for about ten to fifteen minutes, because you remember everybody scared to go to the water,” the dead youth’s mother recalled. She explained that they tried several first aid measures with the hope of reviving young Randolph, but all proved futile.
Eventually he was placed into his father’s car and rushed to the Georgetown Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
“He would have been in school today. He does normally get up early to prepare for school,” Mrs. Thornhill said.
Over the years, the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated has been repeatedly warning persons against flying kites near electric wires and while the young man’s family and friends are mourning his death, the incident will certainly act as a reminder of the dangers of the practice.
A post mortem examination is eagerly awaited to ascertain if the young man died by electrocution or drowning.
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