Falling pole knocks youth unconscious

A Port-of-Spain family is accusing the City Corporation of negligence following a freak accident at the St Paul Street Multi-Sporting Complex yesterday. Joel Bristol, aged 23,  was struck on the head and face by a rusted steel pole while watching a basketball game at the back of the Complex and had to be taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Bristol, of Foster Circular Road, John John, was knocked unconscious when the steel pole came loose when one of his friends leaned on it causing it to fall on Bristol knocking him unconscious. He was revived by friends before being taken to hospital, where he received stitches to the back of his head and face. He was kept overnight for observation.

According to one of Bristol’s friends, Divian Williams, 19, with whom he had joined for their customary Saturday morning basketball game at the Complex, the group of six basketballers opted to use the vacant area behind the Complex since the basketball court was occupied by another group. He said that Bristol was seated on the ground when the incident occurred. “One of my friends leaned on the pole and it gave way. As the pole was falling we called out to Joel, but he didn’t move in time.

When he was hit, he fell back and was not moving or responding at all,” Williams told Sunday Newsday. Williams said the caretaker of the Complex was first alerted and when the telephone at the facility could not be accessed, they borrowed a cellular phone to call the EHS. Bristol’s family is now awaiting word from the doctors as to when he would be discharged. They also plan to “address the unwholesome conditions” at the Complex and take their complaint to the relevant authorities.