Contract worker killed by truck outside Petrotrin

Sookram, 42, was employed with contracting firm Dhanesar Surju and Sons.

A resident of Gopaul Lands, Marabella, Sookram was a lorryman on the truck which killed him and, according to a police report, the Hiat flatbed truck approached the refinery gates at the Pointe-a-Pierre entrance at about 8.15 am.

Sookram, who was sitting in the truck driven by Rasheed Ramnath, 43, alighted at the pedestrian’s walkway which leads to the Petrotrin guard booth.

According to reports, as the truck stood parked alongside the pedestrian walkway and the guard booth, Sookram walked towards the Petrotrin guards to present his temporary identification pass and that of the truck driver. However, police investigations revealed that Sookram attempted to ease his way through the narrow space between the truck and walkway’s railings, instead of walking along the pedestrian walkway, to reach the guard booth.

The truck moved forward and Sookram was pinned between the railing and the truck. He fell to the ground, almost beneath the truck. Police said the truck’s left rear wheels ran over Sookram’s head, killing him instantly. It was one of the security guards who first saw Sookram’s lifeless body under the truck. Police arrived on the scene within minutes.

A visibly shaken Ramnath told the police that Sookram always used the walkway, and he had not expected him to be in the road.

Within minutes, scores of Petrotrin workers and curious passers by gathered at the scene. In Sookram’s hand was his ID badge as he lay beneath the truck for two hours before the district medical officer arrived on the scene.

OWTU’s branch president, Hollis Alexander, who visited the scene, said he would not lay blame on anyone, but hoped that a proper investigation was launched into the incident.

Alexander said his thoughts went back 20 years, when Petrotrin employee Louisa Alleyne was killed by a tank wagon at the company gates on her way to work.

Alexander called on Petrotrin to ensure that the company’s contract workers be given what he described as "hazard analysis orientation training." There is need for greater compliance to the safety regulations, he added, to avoid a repeat of such incidents.

"Had proper training been done, this comrade would not have been in the road," Alexander said.

Contractor Harrylal Surju said Sookram began working with his company one year ago. Surju, who said he went to school with the deceased, said Sookram’s wife died recently and and he lived with his parents. He said the couple had a five-year-old daughter. Surju said the bereaved family would be compensated, and he offered to pay all funeral expenses.

PC Sookdeo of the Marabella Police Station is investigating the incident.