RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Tragedy struck in Ma­yaro on Sat­ur­day, when a 69-year-old man from Biche died af­ter be­ing crushed by a tree he was cut­ting in Cadette Trace, Bris­tol Vil­lage, Ma­yaro.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said An­tho­ny Morales, of Bhag­wa­tee Trace, Lasalle Road, Biche, was us­ing a pow­er saw to cut a tree at 11 am when it fell and struck him on the head, killing him in­stant­ly. His friend, Tony Hamil­ton, 65, of Ec­clesville Road, Rio Claro, called the po­lice and WPC Ja­groop and PC Os­on­du vis­it­ed the scene, ac­com­pa­nied by In­spec­tor Rag­bir and per­son­nel from the Rio Claro Fire Sta­tion.

Morales was found about 50 feet off a track on the east­ern side of Cadette Road. He was ly­ing in a fold­ed po­si­tion, dressed in a brown and black striped t-shirt, black pants, and boots. Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Al­fred pro­nounced Morales dead. His friend Er­ic John Williams said Morales had al­ready chopped down sev­er­al trees when the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

“When he reached the last tree, I see the tree falling to­wards the camp and I de­cid­ed to run. When the tree fell I called out to him and he didn’t an­swer,” Williams said.

Arrange­ments were made to trans­port the body to the San­gre Grande Mor­tu­ary for a post-mortem at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex in Mount Hope.

Cpl Dowar­ka and PC Ra­moutar are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.