Carpenter crushed by wall

SHARLENE RAMPERSAD

AN Erin carpenter was killed on Tuesday when high winds knocked over a wall and it crushed him on a jobsite. Percival Laing, 72, of St Francis Village, Erin died on the spot. His brother Cyril James told the Newsday his brother was acting as a supervisor on the jobsite in Rancho Quemado, as a favour to someone, when the accident occurred around noon.

“We were told a high wind caused a wall that was not structurally sound to collapse, and everyone who was close-by ran and he was trying to run away too, but he tripped and fell and everything came down on him.” An autopsy yesterday showed that Laing died of blunt force trauma and internal bleeding.

“He had massive head injuries. His internal organs were damaged as well, because one of his ribs broke and punctured his liver.” Laing was the uncle of radio personality Jason “JW” Williams. Cyril said yesterday that funeral arrangements were being made for Saturday in Palo Seco. “The whole family is very shaken up. I myself don’t know how I’m going to really cope with his death.

“Just last week we attended a funeral together in Erin and I was jokingly telling him we need to start preparing our wills. Percy was a very quiet person, he didn’t talk much but he was always willing to assist anyone in any way he could, it was never about money with him.”

On February 22, the body of 44-year-old Roger Lewis was found by the pastor of his church buried under rubble from a concrete wall he had been demolishing. He had been dead for four days. Lewis lived in Jacob Settlement, Santa Flora and had been doing repairs to his home alone.