THE loading of goods, boarding of vehicles and people were brought to a grinding halt for about five hours yesterday morning after a truck contracted to the Ministry of Public Works slipped off a makeshift bridge and was partly submerged in the Essequibo River at the Parika Stelling.

The Truck GMM 3472 is privately owned and was at the time ferrying seven tons of stones to Bartica to execute roadwork.
The driver of the vehicle who did not give his name told the Guyana Chronicle that he was attempting to make his way up onto the vessel Makouria which is operated by the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) and which was loading to depart for Bartica.
He explained that it was just about 06.00hrs and the planks which are usually positioned to facilitate the moving on and off of vehicles to the vessels was wet and caused the front wheels of the truck, which was inches away from entering the vessel, to slip off the plank and become partly submerged.
Prior to the incident there were less than ten people on the vessel and they were later seen coming off the vessel with the assistance from T&HD employees.
Immediately after the truck encountered the difficulty, persons in the area anchored the truck to one of the huge beams of the stelling and another truck to prevent it from shifting further into the river.
The Ministry of Public Works then employed the use of one of its excavators to position the stone from the tray of the truck more to the back so as to ease the strain on the front of the truck.
Following that move, there was some difficulty getting the truck from the position it found itself in but after some enduring efforts the truck was finally brought out of its position and the loading and boarding of the vessel continued, marking a very lengthy delay from the original departure time of the boat.
No one was injured as a result of the incident but there was some amount of damage to the front of the truck. The driver could not say if the vehicle was insured.