Over the last 18 months, 42 persons have died in riverain and coastal accidents and the death toll of 25 last year was highest in the last decade.
These figures were provided at yesterday’s sitting of Parliament by Works Minister Robeson Benn in response to a question from Leader of the Opposition, David Granger.
The leader of the opposition had lodged a question in Parliament asking for the names of persons killed in the rivers and coastal waters of Guyana as a result of collisions between January 1999 and April 2013. Granger also enquired as to the dates of the incidents and whether enquiries had been conducted and whether there had been any criminal prosecutions as a result.
Yesterday, Benn’s response was circulated by Parliament office. There were 25 deaths in 2012 and 17 so far for this year. This compared with 0 for 2006 and one for 2005. The steep increase in riverain deaths has been linked to the large numbers of people flocking the mining districts to capitalize on the high gold price.
There were four deaths each in 2003 and 2004; 10 in 2007; 9 in 2008; 15 in 2010; 7 in 2011.
Benn in his answer gave a breakdown of the deaths over the years but the information appears incomplete as the description for 2012 did not refer to the December 18, 2012 Pomeroon boat accident. Six persons including a boat captain perished when a boat contracted to the One Laptop per Family Project collided with a passenger speedboat on its way upriver.
The persons who died in the accident were Harrinarine Bhagwandin; Velda Rodrigues, 50 years, of Adams Creek; Shawn Anthony, 14 years, of Adams Creek; Rajkumar Singh, 14 years, of Charity Housing Scheme, Essequibo Coast; his sister Amerita Singh, 10 years; and uncle Vincent Singh, 40 years, of Adams Creek. Manslaughter charges were later brought against the captain of the boat in the collision.
The crash with the single highest fatality was that of the Mattaran and Dube on January 22 this year at Crab Falls which claimed the lives of 10.
The persons who died were Jermaine Calistro, Ulric Grimes, Chrisopher Ramnarine, Jewan Seeram, Keanu Amsterdam, Francisco Olivera Alves, Kevon Ambrose, Deon Moses, Ricky Bobb and Zahir Baksh.
Benn’s response said that the findings in this matter were that there was a failure to comply with the collision regulations, licensing regulations and river navigation regulations, Furthermore, the captain and the bowman were uncertified. The matter is being prosecuted.
Benn in his reply also revealed that for the years 1999 to 2002 a compilation of data on marine accidents was not done. The Maritime Administration Department was operationalized in January, 2003 but still for the years 2003 to 2005 the relevant information was not collated “in a comprehensive manner”. He said that all of the information required has been recorded in detail for the year 2007 to date (May 2013).
Explaining why there are incomplete reports on accidents, Benn said that eyewitnesses sometimes do not turn up when summoned upon the commencement of investigations. For the accidents that occurred after the detailed compiling of data in 2007, there were few outcomes in relation to prosecution or action taken.
In the October 24, 2008 accident in which six persons died after a vessel became snared in fishing nets on the Corentyne River, the report said that it had been intended that there should be new standards for boats operating in the river between the two countries “however not much improvement (occurred) due to (the) border dispute”.
Benn’s answer disclosed that on May 5, 2012 an Oldendorff Carriers (Guyana) Inc tug crew failed to keep a proper lookout in the incident which led to the death of Andre Thompson at DeVeldt, Berbice River.
