Sawmill owner killed by falling tree in Siparia

Tragedy struck in Siparia on Mon­day when a sawmill own­er was killed af­ter be­ing trapped be­neath a falling tree.

Bishen Ram­per­sads­ingh, 46, of Jhu­lai Trace, Pe­nal Rock Road, was the own­er of Siparia Sawmill.

Ini­tial re­ports said he was cut­ting down a tree along David Jack­man Trace, Quinam Road, Siparia, around 9:20 am with an em­ploy­ee when the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

The em­ploy­ee told po­lice he tried to help Ram­per­sads­ingh, who was trapped be­neath the tree. He used a chain­saw to cut parts of the tree trunk to free him, but he was un­re­spon­sive. When po­lice ar­rived at the scene, they pro­ceed­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly 300 me­tres along a dirt track, where they met the em­ploy­ee and fire fight­ers from the Siparia Fire Sta­tion, who then led them about 70 me­tres in­to a bushy area where they saw Ram­per­sads­ingh’s body.

They took him to the Siparia dis­trict health fa­cil­i­ty, where at­tempts to re­sus­ci­tate him were un­suc­cess­ful. He was de­clared dead around 10:45 am.

Of­fi­cers of the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.