Mines officer missing after boats collide in Pomeroon

A senior officer attached to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) was up to last evening missing and feared drowned after a collision which occurred late Saturday night in the Pomeroon River.

No one else was reported missing.

Patrick Ramkellawan, an employee of GGMC’s petroleum division, is feared dead after he was tossed overboard when the boat he was in slammed into a fishing vessel in the Pomeroon River.  Several calls to Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud for information on the incident went unanswered yesterday. Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn told Stabroek News that from reports he had received Ramkellawan fell overboard after the collision and has not yet been found. He said that the police are investigating the accident and that officers from the Maritime Administration would be going to the area to conduct their own investigations sometime today. Benn said that while the man is feared drowned he remains optimistic that he will be found alive.

Deputy Commissioner of the GGMC, Newell Dennison, who is acting for Commissioner Rickford Vieira, who is overseas on assignment, informed that the Ministry of Natural Resources would today issue a release on the accident.

He said that Ramkellawan’s family had already been notified.  “I really don’t want to comment on this now, but we are hoping for the best,” he said.

A Pomeroon miner, Mr. Smith (only name given) told this newspaper that a drilling crew from the GGMC had been in the area earlier in the day to check on a natural gas site.

He said that the men were on their way to Charity when their boat slammed into a fishing boat.

He explained that lighting is very poor in the nights and as such vessels travel at very slow speeds.

There have been increasing numbers of boat collisions in poor light in the Pomeroon and other rivers, some with multiple fatalities.