Biabou mason dies in freak accident

A freak accident on Saturday, March 4 has left a Biabou family in mourning and has brought to the fore the importance of protective gear for certain occupations.

According to Roslyn John, her son Nicholson “Popo” John, a 33-year-old Mason was electrocuted while working on an extension to a house belonging to Marla Kydd, also of Biabou.

Roslyn said that she was told by witnesses that her son had just finished cutting a piece of board, when a transformer he was using fell into a swampy area next to where he was working.

She said that while calling for a piece of board to remove the transformer from the moisture, her son accidently stepped in the dampness and was thrown to the ground and electrocuted.

One of Nicholson’s co-workers jumped from the roof of the house he was working on and pulled the transformer’s plug from the socket, but it was too late. Nicholson died on the spot.The father of a nine-year-old girl, Nicholson celebrated his 33rd birthday last November 9. According to his mother, the mason loved life.

Roslyn said that Nicholson left home on Saturday morning, after which he met one of his brothers in the village and had a drink with him. She said that after drinking with his brother, he went to look for his younger brother, something that he did not normally do, and had a short conversation with him, after which he went to work.

“Around 8.30, I get a phone call say Popo over by Marla dead. I feel sad; is me son. I was close to him; he live here; all ah we was close,” said Roslyn.

She said that despite liking to consume alcohol, Nicholson was a family man who loved his grandmother dearly and would often cook for her.

“He was a good young man; he was a rum drinker; he drink his rum, but he wasn’t a bad person. He calm; if he don’t drink rum he would be here and sit down and shake he foot; he don’t trouble people,” said Roslyn, who revealed that Nicholson would be buried on Saturday, March 18 at the World Mission Pentecostal Church in Biabou.

“I miss him. He was a nice young man; despite he drink rum, he would tell you his mind,” said Roslyn.

Nicholson was the third of Roslyn’s five sons.

He was the first of two men who died in a two-day period from electrocution. Andrew Tittle, a resident of Glen, died on the spot after he was electrocuted while painting at the Balcombe’s Estate in Indian Bay on Monday morning, March 6. (LC)