Rotten utility pole kills Rousillac man

A FATHER of two who stopped to urinate in the yard of his Virgina Avenue, Rousillac home on Monday morning died after he was struck by a utility pole.

Dead is Ulrick John, 40.

A police report said John had just returned home at about 10.30am. Reports said a truck passed along the Southern Main Road near the house and became entangled with several low-hanging TSTT cables. As a result, several poles connected to the lines were pulled down.

One of these poles was inside John’s yard. His neighbour Marvin Seaton told Newsday the freak accident happened within seconds.

He said they were chatting before John walked away and said he was going to urinate.

“And then just like that I saw all these lines in the air moving and the pole from the ground in front the house was uprooted. It was being pulled as the truck was moving in the road.

"The pole in hit John to his back. I had to jump and move away to avoid the pole from hitting me.”

Seaton said John’s back was turned when the pole came swinging in his direction.

“Before I could scream out to him, ‘John, watch your back,' the pole had already hit him.”

He said one of the cables also hit John on the back.

“I still can’t believe it, just like that he if gone, just like that. What really hurts the most is how he has died.”

Nearby, John’s mother Almena Baptiste, 72, was in tears. “Oh God, no. My son, my son is gone. Oh God, please, I can’t take it I am in so much pain right now. My son was healthy, he was not a sick man,”she said, holding her chest.

Baptiste said the pole in the family’s yard had been rotten for some time and was supposed to be removed.

“TSTT came four years ago and they promised to move the pole. They promised, but four years passed and nothing. If that pole was not here, my son would have been alive today,” she said.

She was comforted by friends as she cried. “I looked at my son on the ground. I saw blood coming out his mouth. He was gasping for breath.”

Wiping away her tears she said, “And now they came, when my son is dead. Look, the pole is on the ground. Why did they come now, when he is dead? No one can bring back my son. Why did they not move this pole? Oh gosh, oh gosh.”

The family is calling for a full investigation and also seeking legal advice. “We want answers from TSTT,” said one.

TSTT staff visited the family yesterday.

In a statement yesterday, the company said it is investigating the “unfortunate circumstances surrounding the incident” which resulted in John’s death and expressed condolences to the grieving family.

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