Leonardo Blair and Rasbert Turner, Staff Reporters
Just days after trial-hungry lawyers began offering representation to the families affected by the baffling deaths at the Old Harbour Bay power station in St. Catherine last week, another mystery has emerged. Sixty-six-year-old Jamaica Public Service (JPS) contractor Clement Watt, has been shot dead. Watt was the employer of two of the three men who died mysteriously while working in a pit at the Old Harbour Bay Power Station two Saturdays ago.
The police report that about 4:45 p.m. on Friday, Mr. Watt was shot several times all over his body by unknown attackers while alighting from his car at his home in Spring Village, St. Catherine. Up to press time, the police had not established a motive for the killing.
Mr. Watt was the employer of Owen Townsend and Woodford Brown, 35, who both died along with 72-year-old Arthur Williams while cleaning a cooling pit at the Old Harbour Bay Power Station. An autopsy is currently being carried out to determine the cause of the deaths.
In the meantime, however, the families of Brown, Townsend and 72-year-old JPS worker Arthur Williams said several personal injury
lawyers have been hounding to represent their cases before the courts while they await the outcome of a two-week JPS investigation into the deaths. The results are due this week.
Just days before Watt's death, however, the family of one of the dead men, said the contractor had informed them that JPS was not the employer of the deceased, so they could not reasonably expect the company to foot any responsibility for any of the deaths except Arthur Williams'. They explained that Mr. Watt had told them not to worry about the statement as he was still trying to talk to company officials to see what form of help they could get.
"Him (Watt) tell us that JPS is not responsible, and that them only responsible fi Arthur (Williams) but him say him a go back out deh (JPS Old Harbour) ah one meeting but mi just don't know. Ah wha' dem a tell mi say 'bout mi pickney. Mi just waan hear wah a gwaan," said Mrs. Brown, the mother of Woodford Brown last Wednesday. Woodford Brown is said to have worked on and off for JPS for some 10 years.
Mrs. Brown showed JPS receipts on which her son had collected a salary for work done. One receipt showed payment for: " to dive and remove trash build-up from temporary barrier to enable differential desired."
In a statement to The Sunday Gleaner this week, the JPS pointed out that: "All JPS workers are covered by insurance and in cases of injury, the insurance company pays for damages."
The statement went on further to point out that only one JPS employee was killed in the period 2001 to 2005, before the incident on Saturday, September 10, 2005, in which one JPS worker and two contractors died. The previous death, in 2003, occurred when a worker succumbed to injuries related to third-degree burns sustained when he made contact with an energised circuit at Rosehall Sub-station.
The mother of the late Owen Town-send's five children, Carlene Lewis, along with her other family members, remain livid about the situation. JPS has already undertaken to supply her with $5,000 worth of groceries for the next four weeks until their investigations are complete.
Located on the south coast in Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, some 30 miles from the nation's capital, the Old Harbour Power Station produces over 220 MW of electricity, and is the largest plant in JPS' generating system.
