Garbage worker crushed to death by truck in Kelly Village

Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­[email protected]

What was sup­posed to be a rou­tine shift end­ed in tragedy in cen­tral Trinidad, af­ter a 20-year-old garbage work­er was crushed by a truck.

Po­lice say De­shawn Joseph, of Spring­vale, Clax­ton Bay, ex­it­ed the garbage truck around 9.15 pm at Ra­goonath Street in Kel­ly Vil­lage and was col­lect­ing garbage.

He was walk­ing at the back of the ve­hi­cle when he was struck by the dri­ver, who was re­vers­ing. As he fell, the truck rolled over him, killing him on the spot.

A rel­a­tive con­firmed that Joseph’s girl­friend is preg­nant and his moth­er lives in To­ba­go but would be re­turn­ing to Trinidad.

The truck be­longed to a com­pa­ny based in Cen­tral Trinidad.

The in­ci­dent, which was cap­tured on video and has since gone vi­ral, has raised ques­tions about health and safe­ty for san­i­ta­tion work­ers, with many ex­press­ing sym­pa­thy, say­ing he was just try­ing to earn an “hon­est dol­lar.”

Of­fi­cers of the Ca­roni Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.