Grieving dad: Blame Udecott for my son’s death

DOODRIDGE Danzell, the father of last Thursday’s fatal accident victim Marcus Arthur has accused his son’s employers Urban Development Company of TT (Udecott) of “gross negligence” and is calling on the company to foot the entire funeral expenses. Udecott is demolishing  certain buildings at the Port-of-Spain docks to make way for the FTAA headquarters and the extension of Wrightson Road.

“The employers were negligent in not telling my son, who was on his first day of work at the establishment, that there was fibreglass galvanise mixed with metal ones being used for skylight. This was made worse by the fact that all the galvanise were painted green and no one knew which were the good galvanise to walk on,” the angry father told Sunday Newsday at his Beetham Gardens home yesterday. “As a matter of fact, from information I received, several other persons’ feet went through the galvanise because they did not know it could not stand their weight, yet the management took no safety precautions.

“And while one cannot anticipate an accident and I will have to take it in stride, I seriously cannot accept the $3,000 that the company is prepared to give me when they were negligent. If they decide to pay for the funeral I am prepared to accept that, but I cannot accept that paltry sum for my son’s life. A coffin costs more than that. “Instead of looking at how they were negligent and how they can prevent further loss of life, they are talking about workmen compensation and taking tests to see if Marcus was drinking.”

The aggrieved father also called on officials at the Port to do a thorough examination into safety standards currently being used. According to reports, Marcus, 24, was assisting in demolishing a roof at Shed two, when he saw a man removing his bike. Marcus called out to the man and when he got no response, he attempted to get to a nearby scaffolding, when he crashed through the fibreglass skylight, landing on the debris underneath.  He died while undergoing surgery at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Marcus will be buried on Tuesday at the Tunapuna cemetery after a 3 pm funeral service at the Laventille Seventh Day Adventist Church.