– pins him in trench
A rice farmer of Wash Clothes, Mahaicony Creek was killed when the tractor he was driving careened into a trench and pinned him around 8.20 pm on Friday as he was returning home from work.
Diaram ‘Davo’ Mangal, 37, was alone on the tractor that belonged to him and eyewitnesses who ran to his rescue spent more than half an hour in the deep trench trying to get him out, but his entire body, except for his head was beneath the tractor.
In tears, his wife Patricia De Caires, 28, told Stabroek News that the persons who went to his rescue struggled to get him out, but by the time they did he was already dead.
Residents contacted the police who arrived and conducted investigations then took the body to the Lyken’s Funeral Home. De Caires said her husband left home around 7 am and was expected back between 8 pm to 9 pm.
Around 8.30 pm, she said, she was looking out for him when residents informed her that “tractor turn over with me husband and he dead”. She immediately ran out to the scene where a large crowd had gathered; some persons were in the trench searching for him.
Mangal who was planning to harvest his rice yesterday had been employed with the Burma Rice Mill about four weeks ago to “blade down ash.”
A few other residents who are also employed at Burma were riding behind him on bicycles and saw when the tractor dropped into a deep hole on the road. They said he tried to manoeuvre but ended up in another pothole, lost control and toppled into the trench.
De Caires and Mangal were married for 13 years ago. The union produced four children: Satesh, 10; Suresh, 8; Omesh, 5 and four-year-old Vishwanttie. De Caires described her husband as a very hard-working and caring husband and father.
She said his children were attached to him “more than me” and recalled that before he left home on Friday he “take he time and feed he daughter”.
His grieving mother, Seeremattie Mangal, 69, tearfully recalled that she had already retired to bed when she learnt that her son had died.
She said the sad news was very hard for her to deal with as only last year June she lost her eldest son who lived in Suriname.
Mangal, who would have celebrated his 38th birthday next Wednesday, leaves to mourn six siblings along with his wife, children and mother.
