A TWENTY-year-old man lost his life Monday morning after being pinned by the tractor he was operating when it toppled in a rice field at Philippi, on the Corentyne.
The young man, Alvin Dubaria, called “Tiger Daag”, of Kilmonack, East Berbice Corentyne was preparing rice fields for cultivation some three miles in the Philippi Backlands when the tragedy occurred at around 10:00 hrs.

According to the man’s employer, Heera Nauth, called “Bomber”, they left early in the morning with two tractors to plough the fields when the one he was operating encountered some mechanical problems. He stopped at a camp to fix the problem, leaving Dubaria to carry on. But after some time had passed and he did not see Dubaria passing back, he decided to take another worker with him to see what had happened to him. And that’s when they saw that the tractor Dubaria was driving had toppled and pinned him in the process.

Said Heera Nauth: “After he didn’t pass back, me and another worker decided to check up on him and we see the tractor topple over. So we hurry, and when we reach, we see he hand and foot in the air, but the rest of his body buried down. He did done dead already, and how he did pin down, we could not get he out.”

Heera Nauth said after seeing what had befallen Dubaria, he immediately called the man’s relatives and other persons and asked them to notify the police, who arrived and did their investigations. It would eventually take three tractors and several hours before they were able to upturn the tractor and remove the body, sometime after 16:00 hrs, and take it to the Port Mourant Hospital.

Dubaria’s sister told the Guyana Chronicle that her brother had been working in the rice industry for over five years doing various tasks, but started operating tractors around two years ago. An investigation into his death has been launched.