By LaWanda McAllister
At least 11 people are dead, while scores were injured after a string of boating accidents took place over the past four months in Guyana. According to data on recreational boating, poor maintenance of boats, and turbulent weather among others were the leading contributing factor to these accidents.
In September, a father of two went missing after lightning struck a fishing vessel in the Berbice River. It is believed that the missing man was directly hit by the lightning bolt.
The freak accident occurred in the vicinity of Albion in the Berbice River whilst three men were in a small fishing vessel.
The man was identified as Narine Chandredeo, also called “Brother”, 28, of Fyrish Road, Corentyne, Berbice.
He along with his brother Navindra, 29, and a worker whose name was given as “Romel”, were on the boat during a thunderstorm. Chandredeo, the owner of the boat, left home on a short fishing expedition and was expected back days later.
However, the following day, the two surviving crew members returned and said they all fell off the boat and Chandredeo was missing.
Reports are that the lightning destroyed the hat which Chandredeo was wearing at the time. The part which remained was handed over to the Police.
The missing man’s mother, Kamla Chandredeo, said she was able to speak with her other son. She was reportedly told that her missing son who owned the boat was pulling up the seine from the front of the boat while the two crew members were at the back, when the lightning struck the man.
A few days later, his body was found floating in the vicinity of the Dantzig Seawall at Mahaicony by an engineer of the Public Works Ministry who was conducting an inspection at the said site.
Also in September, the bodies of the two men, who went missing after a boat en route to Bartica, Region Seven, crashed into a beacon in Essequibo River, were recovered.
The accident occurred in the Calf Island area, Essequibo River, and the men were identified as Randy Adams called “Addi”, a well-known businessman of Bartica, and Alvin Leitch called “Spanish Boss”.
At the time of the accident, on board the vessel were ten passengers and among them Darrel Romeo, a popular DJ called Magnum. The captain of the vessel, Jermin Blackman told Police that he was trying to navigate around a damaged beacon located about 100 feet east of Calf Island but collided with it instead. As a result of the crash, a hole was formed at the bottom of the boat and it began taking in water.
Blackman said he attempted to sail ashore with the sinking vessel but it sank very quickly and he along with his bowman, Lamuel Allen, 18, and the passengers were left with no choice but to swim to shore.
News had reached persons in Bartica and other boatmen there sped out to rescue them. However, when the rescue mission was over, the two passengers could not be found. Their lifeless bodies were found days later.
In November, Germain La Rose, 34, of Canvas City, Wismar, Linden, and Terrence Thomas, 29, of Meadow Brook Gardens, Georgetown, had gone missing following a boat mishap at Imbaimadai Landing.
The duo went missing after the boat in which they were travelling took in water and sank in the Upper Mazaruni River in the vicinity of Imbaimadai Landing.
Romell Ramlakhan, a Mines Officer in charge of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission at Imbaimadai Landing, has said that he and two other colleagues had returned from a field trip at Kamarang Landing, and he was on his way to the GGMC station when Thomas and La Rose approached him on the Imbaimadai airstrip and related that they had arrived in Imbaimadai Landing to do work, but did not elaborate.
Information obtained revealed that La Rose requested to be accommodated at the GGMC living quarters, and Ramlakhan agreed, since La Rose was a former employee.
However, Ramlakhan said that the following day, he observed La Rose and Thomas preparing to go on their journey.
After leaving, La Rose, Thomas, and another man boarded a metal boat, property of Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and headed for Kako Village, Upper Mazaruni.
Some two minutes into their journey, the boat began to take in water, and Thomas and La Rose panicked and jumped overboard, causing the boat to take in water and sink.
The men were never seen again and the bodies were later recovered.
In a second incident that occurred in November, a media worker was killed and several others injured after a boat transporting media workers and communication personnel from the Office of the President capsized in the Pomeroon River, situated between the Orinoco and the Essequibo Rivers.
Cameraman Trevor Patrick, 48, was attached to a television station in Essequibo and was undergoing training with Radio Essequibo.
Media reports are that the boat carrying the media workers was reportedly a short distance behind the one carrying the presidential delegation when it suddenly flipped over, throwing all of its occupants overboard.
The other occupants, including an information officer and two cameramen attached to the President’s office, were all pulled out of the river by the occupants of another boat that was in the area at the time.
Patrick was pulled from the river in an unconscious state and rushed to the Charity hospital where he was pronounced dead. The other injured persons were taken to the city where they underwent medical checks.
Also in November, 38-year-old Thomas Carstens Jr, an American tourist went missing after the boat in which he was travelling capsized about 100 kilometres up the Essequibo River in North Rupununi, in the vicinity of Apoteri Village.
It was reported that Carstens Jr and seven other foreign nationals had on November 18 arrived in Apoteri Village, North Rupununi, via a private chartered aircraft for a seven-day fishing expedition which is hosted by Mark Bolton of Kanuku Lodge Eco Resort, which is also the host for “Amazon River Monster”.
On November 22, Carstens Jr and another American tourist, Jered Weiland, along with their tour guide and boat captain, 29-year-old Jim George, departed the resort and headed upstream in the Essequibo River in an aluminium boat that was powered by a 15-horsepower outboard engine.
After about one hour and 30 minutes upstream, they were traversing through rapids when the outboard engine encountered a mechanical problem that caused the boat to drift down the rapids.
Police said water started to get into the boat, causing Carstens Jr to panic.
As a result, it is reported that Carstens Jr jumped into the water where he held on to the side of the boat. He then tried to get back into the boat but while doing so the boat became “off balance” and took in more water.
Weiland and George then jumped into the river and managed to swim to an island that was about seven metres away from where the boat stopped. The boat sank and Carstens Jr went underwater and did not resurface. His body was recovered two days later.
Meanwhile, in December, two Brazilians were reported missing following a river mishap in the vicinity of “Looking Glass Falls” in the Mazaruni River, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). The only names given for the two missing Brazilian nationals are “Japow” and “Bartolomeu”.
Reports are that 27-year-old Assardo Adrian Savory, a boat captain of Lot 31 Five Miles, Bartica, went to the Bartica Police Station in the company of 52-year-old Juarez De Morais, a Brazilian businessman of Providence, East Bank Demerara; 61-year-old Carlos Santos of Regent Street, Georgetown; and 21-year-old Dillon Perreira of Parika Village, East Bank Demerara.
According to Police, Savory reported that he was the captain of a boat which left Bartica Stelling, Essequibo River, early in the morning en route to Poppy Show, Mazaruni River. The man reported that with him in the boat at the time were Juarez De Morais, Carlos Santos, Dillon Perreira, and the now missing Brazilians, “Japow” and “Bartolomeu”.
Police said that the captain reported that at about 07:00h on the day in question, as he was navigating the river in the vicinity of the “Looking Glass Falls”, the boat came in contact with a strong wave which caused the bow of the boat to break off.
As a result, all the occupants were tossed overboard. After being flung overboard, the two missing persons were not seen again.
The captain further told the Police that he, Dillon Perreira, Juarez De Morais, and Carlos Santos swam to safety and were rescued some two hours later by a passing boat. He said efforts were made to locate the missing men but proved futile.
Police said that the survivors received injuries to their bodies and were escorted to the Bartica Regional Hospital where they were all seen, examined, and later sent away. The bodies were later recovered.
On Monday, two children died in the Pomeroon River following the most recent boat mishap.
The bodies of five-year-old Reshanna Atkinson and one-year-old Josiah Atkinson, who fell overboard after the boat in which they were travelling capsized on Monday night, were recovered on Tuesday morning, in the Pomeroon River.
The accident occurred at about 20:30h in the vicinity of St Monica, Upper Pomeroon, Region Two.
According to information reaching this publication, the children, along with their parents, Bhinauth and Novita Atkinson, were in a boat in St Monica heading home when the boat engine, a 75hp Yamaha, collided with a floating object in the river.
As a result, the boat flipped and capsized, causing the family to fall into the water.
However, Bhinauth and Novita managed to swim to shore while the children went missing. Their bodies were later recovered.
Meanwhile, according to Regional Commander Khemraj Shivbaran, the family members did not have on life jackets. He also said, at the time they were travelling, they were using a cell phone flashlight in order to see clearly.
The bodies were taken from the scene to the Charity Mortuary awaiting a post-mortem examination.
This incident occurred just after Public Works Minister Juan Edghill warned that water taxis operating in the Essequibo River are only allowed to operate during daylight hours since these vessels are not built to navigate at night.
This comment had surfaced as he was responding to requests for night vision goggles to be provided to water taxi operators. The Minister explained that currently, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has standard operating times and Government will not condone any activities beyond this period.
Minister within the Public Works Ministry Deodat Indar had also expressed that operators should not flout the guidelines intended for their safety and those of the passengers they’re taking.
“Who goes to tell their family that the operator decided to travel in the night and hit a rock? Sometimes it looks like the Government is not regulating but people can’t do their own thing outside of the guidelines that MARAD has.”
“We’re not going to introduce things to accommodate behaviour outside of the prescribed timing. There is a safe time to operate passenger vessels using those speedboats. We’re not going to allow that. That is the position of our Government,” Indar positioned. (G9)
