ELECTROCUTED WHILE PICKING ACKEES

No. 132 Wednesday, August 25, 2010
A Trelawny man was electrocuted while allegedly picking ackees. As a result, the police in the parish along with personnel from the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) have launched an investigation into the recent death of the man who was a security guard. He was found dead on the branch of an ackee tree on Saturday.

   The dead man has been identified as Peter Whyte, otherwise called ‘Sicky’, 28 year-old security guard of a Falmouth Gardens address.
    Reports reaching the Western Mirror are that Whyte, at the time of his death, was employed as a watchman on the compound of a construction company which is located in Summer Hill.
    A police source revealed that about 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, the security guard, who was on duty at the construction company, went to pick ackees which were located at the far end of the premises. After climbing the tree, Whyte stretched out on a branch to pick one of the fruits. The branch, on which he was sitting, apparently swayed in the direction of the Jamaica Public Service Company’s high tension power line and got entangled.
    The high voltage from the power line electrocuted the security guard who was overheard screaming by a passer-by.
    Upon discovering the body of the man on the tree, he immediately raised an alarm upon which the police and representatives of the construction company were alerted to the scene.
    Whyte was pronounced dead at hospital and his body later removed from the scene to the morgue for post mortem.