Glass Shatters Man�s Brain

A 52-year-old employee of Safaamy Company at Atico near Kaneshie in Accra died last Friday when nine cases containing glass and aluminum profiles collapsed on him. The deceased, identified as George Sarpong aka S.K. or �Ensuro Atsere�, was a checker of the company, an agency that dealt in glass and aluminum profiles. An eyewitness account indicated that the deceased was trying to open new cases of glass when about nine of them, which contained 30 pieces each, fell on him. It took more than two hours for rescuers to finally remove the man from the debris of broken glasses, by which time he was dead. Kofi Yeboah Nyarko, supervisor of the company, told DAILY GUIDE that George Sarpong was trapped under the glass in the full glare of his colleagues and some customers, but there was nothing they could do instantly to save him. Narrating the incident, Mr Nyarko said around 3:30pm Friday afternoon, when they realized that the cases of glass they had opened earlier had finished, he directed the deceased George Sarpong, together with one Yaw Mike, also an employee, to open a new case of glass for sale. A case of glass contained 30 pieces and had been erected on two metal stands, five on each side. The deceased was opening a new case of glass with Yaw Mike, the company�s driver, when it collapsed on him. �I was standing close to one of the stands, giving instructions on how they should go about it while the two were in between the two stands trying to open one of the cases. In the process, Yaw Mike excused himself to attend to nature�s call. A few minutes after Yaw Mike had left, I heard an unusual noise coming from one of the stands and quickly alerted George to leave the place since the stand was broken. �In an attempt to escape, the stand together with nine of the glass cases which contained about 270 pieces of glass fell on him. �The impact was so great that we only heard him scream once. Since there was nothing we could do instantly to save George�s life, we called on other workers nearby to help us rescue him but it was too late,� the supervisor narrated. Police from the Odorkor District were informed about the incident; and with their expertise, the workers managed to finally remove George, who was dead by then, from beneath the broken glass around 5:30pm. Meanwhile, police personnel at the scene told DAILY GUIDE that investigations conducted indicated that the material used in mounting the stands which held the cases was not durable. There were only two stands; one made with channel iron and another mounted with galvanized pipe and each was loaded with about 10 cases of glass, five on each side. The one which collapsed, killing George Sarpong, was the stand mounted with the galvanized pipe. The Odorkor District Crime Officer, DSP Emmanuel Osei, told DAILY GUIDE that the Managing Director of Safaamy Company Limited, Kofi Somah would be invited for questioning. The body of the deceased, a father of four and resident of Taifa, had since been deposited at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital morgue for autopsy.