Eight injured in Pigeon Point boating accident

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Eight peo­ple were in­jured yes­ter­day fol­low­ing a boat­ing ac­ci­dent at Pi­geon Point beach.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, two pirogues with sev­er­al pas­sen­gers aboard col­lid­ed around 6.20 pm at the pop­u­lar lo­ca­tion.

Sources con­firmed Wa­ter Junkie, owned by Wa­ter­holics, was be­ing tak­en for a test run, with just two peo­ple aboard, when it crashed in­to an­oth­er ves­sel.

The im­pact re­sult­ed in one pas­sen­ger go­ing air­borne, be­ing flung from one boat to the next.

Sev­er­al pas­sen­gers re­ceived in­juries to their heads and bod­ies.

One af­fect­ed pas­sen­ger com­plained about fi­bre glass be­ing on her skin. 

Emer­gency ser­vices re­spond­ed to the in­ci­dent and took the in­jured to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment. 

A wa­ter sports stake­hold­er, whose girl­friend was a pas­sen­ger on one of the boats, said she es­caped se­ri­ous in­jury and did not leave with para­medics.

How­ev­er, he even­tu­al­ly took her to the hos­pi­tal as she be­gan ex­pe­ri­enc­ing pain. The in­ci­dent comes five months af­ter the fa­tal jet ski ac­ci­dent at the same lo­ca­tion, which claimed the life of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie. The for­mer San Fer­nan­do TML stu­dent’s death has raised na­tion­al con­cerns over ma­rine laws and safe­ty.

An­gel­i­ca’s fam­i­ly is su­ing the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) over her death, ar­gu­ing the THA breached its du­ty of care.

Ef­forts to con­tact Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine for a com­ment on the lat­est ma­rine ac­ci­dent were un­suc­cess­ful up to press time.  

Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the in­ci­dent.