The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR Minister Dion Foulkes yesterday underscored the desire to “minimise or eliminate altogether” the possibility of another fatal vehicular accident occurring at this year’s Labour Day parade.

Mr Foulkes described the events of the 2018 celebrations, which resulted in the death of four women, as a “tragedy of the greatest proportions”.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Senate, Mr Foulkes said the march is controlled by the trade union movement but added he will be “making an intervention with them”.

He added discussions are ongoing to determine “exactly what” the rules will be for this year’s parade.

However, the labour minister could not say whether there will be any major changes to the march or whether there are any plans to pay homage to the victims of last year’s incident.

That Labour Day parade was plunged into tragedy on the morning of Friday, June 1, 2018 when a truck mowed through a crowd of people, killing four women and injuring 24 others, according to initial police reports.

It was the first time in the country’s 56-year Labour Day celebration history that such an event occurred.

When asked his position on security improvements for the 2019 parade, Mr Foulkes said: “We are in discussions with both unions now to determine on exactly what the rules are (going) to be.

“I know certain things were said at the press conference on Friday, but what we would like to do is to ensure that we minimise or eliminate the possibility that anybody can be injured either by a vehicle or otherwise.

“What happened last year was a tragedy of the greatest proportions and again we wish to extend our condolences to those families. But this year we would like to minimise or eliminate altogether the possibility of a vehicular accident injuring or causing a fatality on the march.”

He added: “The march is controlled by the trade union movement. But as the minster of labour we have a very good relationship with the movement. And they always respect the views of the government. So I will be making an intervention to them. But the march is the trade unions’ — it’s their march.”

When asked if participants can expect major changes to the march, Mr Foulkes replied: “Well I cannot say that until they come up with a definitive decision.”

He added he could not say whether there are plans to memorialise or pay homage to the victims of last year’s tragedy.

Last Friday, Trade Union Congress General Secretary Tyrone “Rock” Morris said there would be “no real changes” to the 2019 parade.

Mr Morris said: “There are no real changes but right now it is just reducing vehicular traffic; we won’t be eliminating. One of things we have focused on is safety and having our marshals ensure that the various groups are operated in the manner that promote the safety of the [participants] in the march. We are asking members to reduce the amount of vehicular traffic at the parade.

“We have addressed the question of safety and the use of vehicles. We don’t believe that the accident was a result of vehicles that we use on the parade per se. Of course, we wish to get closer to the way parades used to be held years ago which did not require a lot of vehicles, but we are living in a changing world where things are done differently.

“It’s really difficult to eliminate because there are various uses that vehicles are needed for, but our marshals have been given the jobs to ensure that persons operating the vehicles operate in a manner that is safe.”

Last year, a man was charged before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain with four counts of manslaughter by negligence stemming from the June 1 incident, which also injured 24 people.

The incident led to the deaths of 41-year-old Tabitha Haye, 48-year-old Tami Patrice Gibson, 51-year-old Kathleen Fernander and 55-year-old Dianna Gray-Ferguson.