A fatal fall from a 30 foot building in the village of Grand Bay has claimed the life of a resident of that community.
Assistant Superintendent of Police in charge of the Southern Division, Leana Edwards has since confirmed reports of the incident.
In a statement to the media she stated, on May 31, 2022, 56 year-old Mervyn Defoe of Fond St. Jean, who resided at Alcendor Square in Grand Bay, was a contractor by profession.
On the aforementioned date, Defoe was aloft four-storey concrete building at Highland Grand Bay conducting construction work on the decking of the fourth floor when he fell to his death at 12:45 p.m.
“It was related that Mervyn Defoe and a coworker were working on different sections of the decking. At some point the coworker looked in the direction where Mervyn Defoe was working and he was not seen. The coworker went to the area where Mervyn Defoe was working, looked over and saw him lying 30 feet below on the concrete pavement facedown in what appeared to be blood,” Edwards noted.
The Fire and Ambulance Services at Grand Bay were subsequently alerted and on arrival at the scene, Defoe was found in an unresponsive state.
Edwards said the district medical doctor of the Grand Bay Health Center was summoned and pronounced the body dead on the scene at 1:24 p.m.
“The scenes of crime investigator from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) conducted the necessary crime scene investigations and the body of the deceased Mervyn Defoe was subsequently transported to the Gentle Rest Funeral Home for safekeeping awaiting an autopsy,” Edwards reported.
She further noted that investigation into the matter continues.
Condolences to the family, but on another note who is the owner of gentle rest? Why can’t we have a morgue at the Chinese constructing state of the arts hospjtal?
Standards. Dominica needs standards. Safety for workers should be top priority. We cannot continue to say “so it is” and leave things as that.
So sad, so sad. Gone too soon. To the relatives, I convey my condolences.
Where’s my post ….I sent it since last night
ADMIN: Which post? Did you mean a comment?
Unfortunately health and safety in the workplace is almost non-existent in Dominica.
You can say that again…….The word “safety” does not exist in the Dominican lexicon.
RIEP sir…
Sadly, we still have that “gong-hoe” attitude about being brave when working at heights. We are yet to enact/ enforce legislation that will protect our citizens who need the job but have to do what it takes to feed their family. That’s where a strong Labourers and Skilled Workers Union and government paid inspectors can make a difference but sadly most of them contractors getting work nowadays are tied to the cabal so I doubt anything will be done.
Again, condolences to his family and friends and may he RIEP with the ancestors
MAY YOU RIP sad thing to hear. Ppl when a man give you his price to do a job plz pay them these jobs a dangerous
Hummm…. seems like all these comments are from “Johnny Comes Lately.” So I say to you, welcome to Dominica and the new world at large. Bus drivers with passengers on board overtaking vehicles under the cliff with oncoming traffic in the opposite direction. You ask me; will things get better? I’m very scared to say, NOT AT ALL. We are heading for crucial times ahead. More than we have ever seen or experienced in our lifetime. All these events of carelessness and regards for life and what’s good, safe, proper, decent, morals etc.. have been gone. Go take a ride in the book of Revelations and you won’t be surprised when you see a motorcycle overtaking a string of vehicles on the public road. Or when you see one man who is full of his foolish self trying to sell a country of which he is the AM to a communist country. Man’s conscience is seared with a hot iron. The human race (without God) is set for the roughest ride ever. So buckle up. Satan like a roaring Lion destroying everything.
The high price cannot save a life. Remove money from your head.
building 🏫 in Dominican, the minister of housing ,must look into that
They want to blame the Skerrit Government for the man’s death. Stupid a.s Dominicans once again. They have nothing better to say or do but talk more garbage. Skerrit-haters.
Condolences, thoughts with your loved ones RIP
In 2022 we still have this happening when there are a host of engineering and technology to prevent. There is fall arrest technology using safety lanyards, a simple tie off point. This is not the first time that has happened and it is about time the authorities have safety standards set up and enforced to ensure construction and other workers who are exposed to hazardous work go home safe. My sympathy to his family but this is totally preventable and i think we are to hard to learn in this place. If one was not enough to do what it is needed to safeguard people then i do not know what Will.
After reflecting on my past life in Dominica and thinking of all the chances I took, I can only say now God protects the innocents, today there are too many safety programs out there that we are exposed to for this to happen. My sincere condolence to his family may his soul rest in peace.
Shalom.
Too often we in Dominica undertake these kinds of work without any safety equipment or harness to safeguard against incidents like these
I would like to make an urgent call for mandatory safety harness for construction workers engaged in work at least 12′ above ground.
Please……free occupational health and safety training……a la public works or other body.
Safety goes beyond harnesses. There should be a total review of safety in the workplace for whole host of professions and occupations and other activities like driving on bald tires, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, driving dangerously on the road, not having proper safety gear on boats that are going miles out to sea to fish…Children riding in cars without children’s car seats………Electrical cables running on wall without conduits.
These are just a few of the areas where we are lacking…..I am sure there are many more
You can add: workers riding in the back of pickup trucks; a dangerous practice for which there is no insurance cover whatsoever.