Ex-ODPM boss wants maritime safety strategy after latest boating accident

A for­mer Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness Man­age­ment (ODPM) head has called for tougher boat­ing reg­u­la­tions and im­proved na­tion­al emer­gency re­sponse fol­low­ing Sun­day’s col­li­sion be­tween two ves­sels off Trinidad’s north-west­ern penin­su­la, which left sev­er­al peo­ple miss­ing and oth­ers in­jured.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, for­mer ODPM CEO Dr Stephen Ram­roop said the in­ci­dent high­light­ed the ur­gent need for stronger mar­itime safe­ty reg­u­la­tions, im­proved en­force­ment and bet­ter co­or­di­na­tion among emer­gency re­sponse agen­cies.

He ex­pressed sym­pa­thy to the fam­i­lies of those miss­ing and com­mend­ed the T&T Coast Guard (TTCG) and oth­er emer­gency per­son­nel in­volved in the on­go­ing search-and-res­cue op­er­a­tion for sev­er­al peo­ple who re­main un­ac­count­ed for.

“How many more ac­ci­dents, in­juries and deaths must oc­cur be­fore Trinidad and To­ba­go adopts a prop­er­ly co­or­di­nat­ed, risk-based ap­proach to pro­tect­ing lives?” Ram­roop asked.

He said dur­ing his tenure, he had re­peat­ed­ly raised con­cerns about recre­ation­al boat­ing and mar­itime trans­porta­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly around Ch­aguara­mas, the north-west­ern penin­su­la and Down the Is­lands (DDI), where mar­itime traf­fic in­creas­es dur­ing week­ends, pub­lic hol­i­days and ma­jor recre­ation­al events.

He iden­ti­fied con­ges­tion, ex­ces­sive speeds, poor vis­i­bil­i­ty, in­ex­pe­ri­enced op­er­a­tors and al­co­hol con­sump­tion as fore­see­able risks re­quir­ing stronger man­age­ment.

Ram­roop al­so re­ferred to the death of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie fol­low­ing a jet-ski in­ci­dent in To­ba­go ear­li­er this year, as well as sub­se­quent boat­ing col­li­sions, say­ing these in­ci­dents should prompt a re­view of the coun­try’s mar­itime safe­ty sys­tems.

Among his rec­om­men­da­tions are manda­to­ry com­pe­ten­cy and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion re­quire­ments for ves­sel op­er­a­tors, stricter en­force­ment of nav­i­ga­tion rules, des­ig­nat­ed speed-re­strict­ed and no-wake zones, and manda­to­ry life jack­ets, par­tic­u­lar­ly for chil­dren.

He al­so wants tighter reg­u­la­tion of jet skis and oth­er per­son­al wa­ter­craft, in­creased mar­itime pa­trols dur­ing pe­ri­ods of heavy recre­ation­al ac­tiv­i­ty, im­proved ves­sel iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and pas­sen­ger ac­count­abil­i­ty, and more ef­fec­tive emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems.

Ram­roop said the coun­try al­so need­ed a co­or­di­nat­ed mar­itime search-and-res­cue sys­tem with clear­ly de­fined re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, trained per­son­nel and ap­pro­pri­ate equip­ment.

“Leg­is­la­tion alone does not save lives. Im­ple­men­ta­tion, en­force­ment, pre­pared­ness and ac­count­abil­i­ty save lives,” he said.

Ram­roop said im­prov­ing mar­itime safe­ty must go hand in hand with strength­en­ing emer­gency med­ical ser­vices.

He called for trained first re­spon­ders, ap­pro­pri­ate med­ical evac­u­a­tion arrange­ments, strate­gi­cal­ly po­si­tioned Ad­vanced Life Sup­port (ALS) am­bu­lances and bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween the Coast Guard, am­bu­lance dis­patch, emer­gency de­part­ments and trau­ma ser­vices.

He said pa­tients must re­ceive time­ly triage, sta­bil­i­sa­tion and trans­fer to hos­pi­tals equipped to pro­vide de­fin­i­tive trau­ma care.

“Time is crit­i­cal in ma­jor trau­ma, drown­ing and oth­er mar­itime emer­gen­cies,” he said.

Ram­roop said sim­i­lar weak­ness­es in co­or­di­na­tion could af­fect pub­lic safe­ty at ma­jor events, roads, beach­es and en­ter­tain­ment venues.

Ram­roop is urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to es­tab­lish a na­tion­al pub­lic safe­ty and emer­gency risk Man­age­ment strat­e­gy in­volv­ing the ODPM, Coast Guard, Mar­itime Ser­vices Di­vi­sion, Po­lice Ser­vice, Fire Ser­vice, am­bu­lance ser­vices, re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly.

He said the pro­posed frame­work should in­clude na­tion­al risk as­sess­ments, pre­ven­tion pro­grammes, min­i­mum safe­ty stan­dards and co­or­di­nat­ed emer­gency com­mand arrange­ments.

He al­so called for pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion and in­de­pen­dent re­views of se­ri­ous in­ci­dents to iden­ti­fy con­tribut­ing fac­tors and en­sure rec­om­men­da­tions are im­ple­ment­ed.