A Jamaican farm worker succumbed to injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle accident on Sunday August 14 while working in Canada.
He is 57-year-old Garvin Yapp, of Tangle River district in St. James.
The circumstances surrounding his death are still being investigated, according to Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security, but preliminary reports indicate he was involved in a work-related accident and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Minister Karl Samuda, who is currently touring farms in Canada along with Permanent Secretary Colette Roberts Risden has expressed sadness at Yapp’s death.
Minister Samuda, spoke with Yapp’s widow by phone on Tuesday afternoon. He expressed his condolences and assured her of the Ministry’s ongoing support.
The ministry said in a media release that Yapp was “a 35-year veteran of the [farm work] program and was held in such high esteem that his employer would vacation at Yapp’s home on his visits to Jamaica”.
A team from the Ministry’s Family Services Unit has reportedly visited with Yapp’s family and has been offering psycho-social and other support.
It has been reported that Yapp died on his wife’s birthday.
