Thirteen injured after boat crashes onto sandbank

May 04, 2014 News

– Operator was unlicensed

Thirteen passengers were injured at around 05.00 hrs yesterday after a Bartica-bound jet-propelled boat, manned by an unlicensed operator, careened onto a sandbank at Ampa Bay in the Essequibo River.

Charles Richard

Four of the victims were admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Those at the GPHC are Devon Williams, 28, of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo; Charles Richards, 41; Curtis Burnett, 37, of Hibiscus Place, West Coast Demerara; and Clairmont Willaims,49, of Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara. At least three of the victims sustained fractured limbs.
Also at a private hospital are Sharon Daconcei, 28, of Grove, East Bank Demerara, and Marcus Nagaherio, a Brazilian. Ms. Daconcei’s eight-month-old son, Jonathon, who was in the vessel, was examined by a doctor, but suffered no injuries.
Police identified some of the other passengers as Simon Holder, 46, Terrence Warrick, 51; and Jose Da Silva Souza, 38, a Brazilian national residing at Bartica.
The vessel is owned by Barakat Speedboat Service, located in Georgetown.
Police said that the unlicensed operator, indentified as Michael Williams, of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, fled the scene and is still to be arrested.
Several miners were on the vessel, which was to have headed to Piari Landing, Mazaruni, after stopping at Bartica.
Charles Richards, who sustained a cut to his chin, told Kaieteur News that the vessel “crashed into the bushes. Richard said everyone on the vessel was asleep when the accident occurred.
According to police reports, the jet-propelled vessel was in the vicinity of Ampa Bay, located some three and a half miles from Bartica, when it rammed into a tree near a sandbank.
Kaieteur News was told that the operator from another speedboat took the passengers to Bartica, where they

Sharon Daconcei and her baby boy, Jonathon

were treated. The injured were then transported to Parika and taken by ambulance to the GPHC. A source said that the operator took his boat from the scene and is still to be arrested.
A release from the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) stated that officials have travelled to the area to conduct an investigation.