A photographer was left with a swollen face after he slipped and fell on a newly polished floor at Government House during the official visit of President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday.
The incident occurred as Ma called on Governor General, Sir Frederick Ballantyne and held a private meeting with him as part of the Asian leader’s official visit to this country.
The photographer, Lance Neverson of the Agency for Public Information, told his Vincentian colleagues that he did not realise that the floor had been newly polished and was slippery, and that he fell hard.
Neverson’s face was visibly swollen after the incident and at one point, he was bleeding slightly from the cheek area.
I-Witness News understands that the wooden floor at the Governor General’s official residence was polished Saturday morning ahead of Ma’s visit.
The floor, which seemed to have been polished with an oil-based substance, was slippery to the touch.
After the incident, Vincentian and Taiwanese were heard cautioning each other in English and Chinese, respectively, about the slippery floor.
Some persons were seen sliding as they walked, and others were assisted in making their way across the slippery surface.
After their private meeting, Ma and Sir Frederick posed for photographers as they exchanged gifts.
Both heads of state then made their way across the slippery floor, without incident, as Ma went to sign the guest book at Government House.
The Taiwan president wrote in English “Greeting and friendship from the Republic of China on Taiwan”. He also wrote in Chinese a sentence that roughly translates into English as, “May the friendship of our countries remain stable for ever.”
(Read other stories and see photos of Ma’s visit.)
WOW that’s embarrassing for the country. Why wasn’t the excess oil buffed off after? As usual some moron probably thought the more polishing oil the shiner it will be.
Slippery when wet…Serious grounds for a SUE, don’t ease up Mr Neverson, this is Government business and they are responsible for the safety of all their guests.
Property owners( in this case, the Government) are responsible for maintaining reasonably safe and secure conditions for occupants of and visitors to their properties. I am not sure about the laws in Vincyland that covers incident as such, in the US, slip and fall accidents are handled as premises liability claims.
This accident could have been a lot more serious for Mr Neverson, as in a BACK INJURY or a DIPLOMATIC NIGHTMARE AS IN THE TAIWAN PRESIDENT FALLING AND BEING SERIOUSLY INJURED. What would Gonsalves say, had the President fallen? Sorry?
This is a most terrible incident and Mr Neverson deserves a public apology from both the Prime Minister and the Governor General. Had this been some one from the Taiwanese delegation, a deluge of public apologies would be pouring out from the Government forthwith.
Mr Neverson, I hope you demand at least, an apology or taking legal action.
thank goodness it wasn’t Gonsalves, he would want to sue the Queen
I was wondering how is it that Gonsalves now following protocol and let our head of state, the GG, receive a visiting head of state instead of taking them to the PM’s residence. It’s been soooo long that our GG received anyone they had to rush a quick clean up of the GG house, i wonder if a Jackson company did that job. It would’ve been sooo emba-raassssing if it was the president but Lance have ‘suck salt’ and come up with an excuse, ULP style, blame his shoe or say that polish so nice and smooth he going to buy some for his home.