The death toll from a minibus accident in St Lucia on Thursday evening now stands at 17, following the discovery of another body yesterday afternoon.
Carmy Joseph, editor at Helen Television Systems (HTS) in St Lucia, told Stabroek News yesterday that the body of a child was found in the water close to the crash site, where a minibus transporting persons returning home from a funeral plunged over a cliff.
Spokesman for the Royal St Lucia Police Force, Trevor Constantine also confirmed the death toll. Although a large number of Guyanese reside in the island, Constantine said none of the dead were Guyanese. Joseph said the dead were all from a rural village on the east coast of St. Lucia and nine of the deceased were from one family. The accident was described as the worst in the history of the island.
A statement from the St Lucia police said that investigations are being carried out to determine the circumstances surrounding the traffic accident, which occurred at about 7.45 pm on Thursday at Morne Sion, Choiseul. At the time of the issuance of the statement, only 16 bodies were recovered. The dead are all from the community of Dugard, Micoud.
The police said that reports indicated that on Thursday evening, a Toyota, 14-seater vehicle, with registration number HD 98, driven by 47-year-old, Michael Alexander of Micoud, was travelling in the direction of Choiseul from the community of Delcer, Choiseul, when it ran off the road in the Morne Sion area and plunged off the cliff then landed near the seashore.
Initially 14 bodies were recovered while one person died at the hospital. Yesterday morning, the body of a 12-year-old girl was found floating on the surface of the water. The body of another child was recovered in the water yesterday afternoon. “According to reports, the persons dead had previously attended a funeral service at Choiseul village and proceeded to Delcer thereafter. Then after they left Delcer, they were heading home at Dugard, Micoud,” the police statement said.
HTS reported that St Lucian Prime Minister Stephenson King said the Cabinet would meet yesterday to determine how the country will remember the many lives lost in Thursday’s tragedy. Both main political parties suspended all political activity including two major rallies that had been planned for Sunday – the ruling United Workers Party was scheduled to meet in Choiseul and the Saint Lucia Labour Party in Dennery, HTS reported.
