Chaguanas supervisor crushed to death at construction site

Worried that the tragic death of construction supervisor Parmanan Sunil Sookoo, 46, at his job site Wednesday could take a toll on his father’s health, relatives waited a day to break the news

Since Monday, Sookoo’s ailing father, Babram Sookoo, 67, had been hospitalised.

By 3 pm on Thursday, a relative at the Mt Hope hospital confirmed they had broken the news, and doctors were attending to him. Speaking by phone, the relative said Babram was expected to be discharged later in the day.

Police said at about 3 pm on Wednesday, Sookoo was overseeing excavation and debris removal at the new Phoenix Park Industrial Estate in Couva.

He worked as a supervisor with Universal Projects Ltd.

The report said Sookoo told an excavator operator, 63, who lives in Preysal, to move to another area to load two trucks, then left.

While driving the machine, the operator saw a cellphone on the ground and stopped to pick it up.

There, he saw Sookoo motionless under the tracks of the tractor. He immediately reversed it to remove the injured man.

Sookoo was taken to the Couva district health facility, where doctors declared him dead.

PC Rackal, WPC Marshall, and other Central Division officers the visited the site and spoke to several people.

A relative said Sookoo began working there some months ago.

Sookoo lived with his wife Parbati and their two children, nine and 16, at Soogrim Street in Endeavour, Chaguanas. His parents and other relatives live nearby.

When Newsday visited the family’s home, relatives said other members of the family had gone to the hospital to break the news to his father.

“On Sunday, the family held (Hindu) prayers for his father. His father has diabetes and other health issues. The next day, he ended up in the hospital. We do not know how he would react to the news, so it is better to break it in the hospital,” another relative said.

“The boss and other people from the company visited the family.”

An autopsy is expected to be done at the mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital.

Investigations are ongoing.