DEADLY BOAT MISHAP: Captain committed several breaches

Jermaine Blackman who was captaining the water taxi that crashed, sunk, and resulted in the deaths of two persons is likely to be slapped with several charges.

BIG Smith News Watch was told that on Saturday when Jermaine set his boat in motion from the Parika Stelling, he did that after the prescribed time for the last boat to set off on its journey. Jermaine also failed to seek and receive the go-ahead instructions from the monitors at the Stelling. Further to that, his boat was not registered as a boat in the turn system at the Parika Stelling when he left on Saturday afternoon.

In addition to him and his bowman Lamuel Allen, ten other persons were in the vessel when it departed the Parika Saturday afternoon at 17:30hrs and crashed approximately one hour after in the pitch of dark.

Several of the passengers including the now deceased Alvin Leitch called ‘Spanish’ and Randy Adams called ‘Addi’ were not wearing lifejackets. In fact, after the crash, the bodies of Leitch and Adams could not be found. It was until Monday that their remains were fished out of the river near Calf Island where the mishap took place. At the time of the retrieval of the bodies, no life jackets were on.

Popular Disc Jockey Darrel Romeo called “Magnum”, a toddler and mother were among the persons who managed to make it to safety.

The told police detectives that he was attempting to navigate a damaged Beacon but the boat collided with same causing the boat to puncture. The vessel which began taking in water quickly sank as he, Jermaine was attempting to have the boat sail to the riverbank.