Tourist Mauled to Death on Snorkeling Tour

A tragic boating accident claimed the life of a seventy-year-old tourist on Sunday while snorkeling near Turneffe Atolls. Commissioner Williams pointed out that this unfortunate incident could have been avoided. The tourists were in a designated area marked for their activity, and the approaching boat captain should have seen the markers and steered clear but failed to do so. Williams believes that the captain should face charges for causing death by careless conduct, at the very least.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“A group of tourists were snorkeling in the area of Turneffe. From my understanding is that the area where they were snorkeling, the tour guides had the area marked off as they would normally do to indicate that there is activity taking place there. And a boat came from nowhere and just ran through the place at very high speed and ran over the tourist causing the tourist’s death. The boat captain is currently in police custody. The investigators and personnel and the Port Authority went out to the scene this morning. They should be returning sometime this evening, but from what I am seeing, I’m not going to be the one to determine. If the boat captain is to be charged or not, but from what I am seeing based on what has been told to me, that is a clear case of causing debt, backyard conduct.  I think at the very least the boat captain should be charged for causing debt, backyard conduct. It is common knowledge to all of these tour operators that when you see certain things in the waters as markers, you have to avoid those areas because people are either diving or snorkeling there and the tour operators who took out the tourists discharged their responsibility by making sure that they had marked out the place to indicate to any boat that would come in the area, that that is an area where, uh, people are diving or snorkeling. So this boat captain, who was not a part of that tour operator had to have seen the markers as an indication that he should not have gone through that area. So at the very least for me, I see man causing death by careless conduct.”