Who will compensate the incapacitated employee?
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER three years and numerous requests by the local media and an incapacitated former employee of Bob Getz’s WYO Aggregate Limited, Minister of Works Dr. the Hon. Earl Asim Martin finally released the report on the West Basseterre Bypass Road Bridge Collapse.
Copies of the report were distributed to members of the media during the Prime Minister’s Monthly Press Conference held at the Parliamentary Lounge on Wednesday, June 22, 2011.
To the dismay of many, the report, which was completed in June 2008, is not only inconclusive in its findings but also not definitive and shrouded in probability.
Ironically, the report, dubbed ‘Review of the Collapse of Formwork to Deck of Bridge No. 4 on 14th May 2008’ and done by Halcrow Group Ltd., indicates that the inconclusive findings is as a result of a decision made by the police.
“This report does not present a definitive cause of the failure (as the site of the accident was cleared for health reasons under the instructions of the local Police the day after the accident) but instead reviews ‘possible’ causes that may have contributed to, or directly led to, the failure,” the report reads.
It further reads: “With the available evidence, it has not been possible to conclude a definitive reason for the failure of the temporary works for Bridge 4.”
However, the overwhelming complexity of this information casts a light of unprofessionalism within the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force.
It is common practice that, apart from a traffic accident, whenever a person dies under the condition of homicide or suspected homicide, police normally secure the crime scene to avoid contamination of evidence.
The West Basseterre Bypass Road Bridge collapse resulted in the death of 64-year-old Allick Toney of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and injuries to Guyanese national Ian ‘Shatta’ Warde and Mortland Watterton; all of whom were employed by WYO Aggregate Ltd.
Both Warde and Watterton were hospitalised and, while the former have since recuperated, the latter still suffers from a damaged vertebrate that could lead to paralysis.
Speaking with SKNVibes, Watterton outlined some of the physical, mental and financial problems he encounters as well as issues with the late release of the report.
After a six-day convalescence at the JNF Hospital, Watterton said that he took his own discharge and travelled once to Barbados and Guyana to seek advanced medical treatment.
“The accident has caused damage to my spine and leg. While at the JNF Hospital, I was visited by a minister of government and an official from Social Security. After six days there, I took self-discharge because I was only receiving injections for the pains that I felt. So, I purchased pain tablets on a regular basis from a drug store and depended on my wife to administer homemade treatment.
“The pains were very severe and I did not know at the time that my spine was damaged. However, it was not until 2009, after I had accumulated some money to travel to Barbados and Guyana, was it revealed that I had a damaged spine,” Watterton said.
The father of two explained that while in Guyana, he had completed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination of his spine and had it diagnosed in Barbados, where he learnt that the L3 vertebrate was damaged.
“On learning the truth of my condition, I asked a doctor in Barbados if an operation could remedy the situation and he advised that I should not undergo one at this time.
“The doctor explained that because of the delay between the time of the accident and when I completed the MRI, he would advise that I don’t because it would be a 50/50 chance in me having to ever walk again,” Watterton said.
Watterton also explained that he experiences swelling in both legs and could not be engaged in any strenuous task because it would affect his back.
“For all of my adult life I have been working in the construction field. This is the profession that I know and it has been the mainstay in me providing for my family. Now that I am injured, I cannot provide for them, and the disability benefit that I receive from Social Security is not enough to cover my family’s monthly expenditure.
“Since the collapse of the bridge, I only had to pay for my status in the country in 2009, but I do have to pay for my wife and children and I have not found the money as yet to pay for them for this year.
“Last year, shortly before the Federal Elections, the authorities told me that because of my injury I would no longer have to pay for our status. This year however, when I went to the Ministry of National Security to update our status, mine was waivered but not those of my wife and children. My wife was however granted permission to remain in the Federation until we can find the money to pay for her status and also those of my children, but they have kept my children’s passports until the fees are paid.”
Watterton said that it is not his intension to be illegally in the Federation, but “I was not responsible for the bridge collapse…I am a victim of it and nobody, not even the report, can say what caused it”.
He is of the view that a thorough investigation was not done to ascertain the cause of the industrial accident.
“The bridge collapsed on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 and the investigation was launched shortly thereafter, but no one from Halcrow Group Ltd. had interviewed me or any member of the police force had taken a statement from me. I strongly believe that the investigation is incomplete.”
Seemingly resigned to his fate as a permanently incapacitated individual, Watterton noted that “God is in charge…but I want to know who will compensate me for my injury”?
