A devastating workplace accident has left a small Trinidad and Tobago community in mourning, after 20-year-old sanitation worker Deshawn Joseph was crushed to death by a reversing garbage truck on a residential street Tuesday night, sparking urgent calls for a transparent, thorough probe into the fatal incident.
The tragedy unfolded just after 9:15 p.m. in Kelly Village, Caroni, as the truck the team was operating backed into Ramnath Street. Surveillance footage of the incident captures Joseph standing at the rear of the vehicle as the driver maneuvers around an illegally parked car blocking part of the roadway. Joseph, whose girlfriend is four months pregnant with the couple’s first child, jumped down from the truck’s rear step and stepped toward a discarded garbage bag moments before the truck’s wheels rolled over his body.
The 43-year-old driver at the wheel, who has spoken publicly about the accident, told local media he was focused on avoiding collision with the parked vehicle on his left and could not see Joseph in the truck’s blind spot. He told Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne he had built a friendly working relationship with Joseph over the seven months they had worked together, adding that Joseph had accompanied him on an early run to the Chaguanas Market that night even though his scheduled shift did not start until later.
“He said he would come along for the drive and just hung out with me at the market,” the driver recalled. “If you watch the surveillance footage, you can see he jumped from the truck while it was still reversing – you’re never supposed to exit a moving reversing vehicle.” The driver, who noted he has decades of experience operating heavy collection vehicles, said he is deeply grief-stricken by the tragedy, describing Joseph as a “good kid” and asking the young worker’s family for understanding. He added that he has received repeated threats since the accident and has been forced to leave his home to stay safe, stressing that the incident was an unforeseeable tragedy.
Joseph’s family has rejected calls to treat the death as a simple accident and is demanding law enforcement officials launch a full investigation to clarify exactly what led to the young worker’s death. The incident has also left Joseph’s 19-year-old pregnant girlfriend severely traumatized, facing a future raising their child without her partner.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has publicly extended her deepest condolences to Joseph’s family, addressing the tragedy in an official social media post Thursday. “It is truly heartbreaking that a young man went out to earn an honest living to care for his family and never returned home,” she wrote. Persad-Bissessar noted that Joseph leaves behind a heartbroken family, including his expecting girlfriend, and offered a message of support: “May his soul rest in eternal peace, and may God grant strength, comfort and healing to his loved ones during this painful time of grief.”