A survivor of the fatal Anse Cochon boat collision has told a Commission of Inquiry that local passengers are routinely not given safety briefings.
“In Saint Lucia, we don’t do safety briefings with locals,” Lester Jean testified on Wednesday, the second day of the inquiry into the July 18 collision between the Cazorla Jr and Ocean Angel that claimed four lives.
Jean said he had taken countless boat trips before and never received a safety briefing.
“I board plenty boats before, not Cazorla only, plenty of boats. Nobody give locals briefings; they only give tourists briefings because tourists paying more money,” he claimed.
Jean, the last of six witnesses called that day, said he had accepted a ride on the Cazorla Jr from Soufrière to Castries and back.
“I know the guys were going to a party, so I asked them for a ride,” he told the Commission.
He recalled hearing a “big collision” on the return journey to Soufrière, after which he was thrown into the water and heard people shouting for help. He said another passenger and the owner of the Cazorla Jr tried to steer the vessel towards shore, but it eventually sank.
Asked about the direction in which he saw people entering the water, Jean, pointing to his prosthetic right eye, said: “I could not tell you if I saw them because I have a fake eye. I could not see anything on the right.”
He also said he had not noticed any oncoming lights at the time of the collision.
“We were missing four people, and the captain jumped into the water to help,” he recalled of the aftermath. “I was there on the boat. I opened the bow for lifejackets, I grabbed one, put it on and jumped into the water to assist.”
Asked whether he could swim, he replied, “I’m a shark.”
Jean said he subsequently swam to a nearby yacht to seek help but encountered hostility from the person aboard.
“The guy think I was coming to rob his boat or do something to him, so it was a misunderstanding; I got threatened,” he said.
Commission chairman Mario Michel interrupted him at that point, reminding him that the events aboard the yacht were the subject of a police case against him, and cautioning him against making statements that could prejudice his position in that matter.
Jean said another boat later picked up the survivors and took them to Ti Kaye, where they waited for an ambulance.
He told the Commission that he was familiar with boats and the sea but did not hold a boat licence. He said he had previously made “plenty of trips” for a particular hotel where he worked several years ago in the water sports department.
Survivors who testified over the two days of hearings have said they received no safety briefing before boarding either vessel. They also said life jackets were not provided, although one passenger requested one before the collision.
Romean Williams and his girlfriend, Taylor Riviere, recounted their experience aboard the Ocean Angel. Williams had requested a life jacket before the collision.
Asked why she had not requested one for herself, Riviere said she had been on boats before and that wearing life jackets was not customary for them.
“We can swim, so we don’t normally wear it,” she said.
About five minutes after Williams put on the life jacket, Riviere recalled, they heard a loud sound.
“Next thing we knew we were in the water…. After getting my bearings, I noticed my leg was broken,” she said.
Riviere testified that they swam towards the partially submerged Ocean Angel with assistance from Tyson Hippolyte, one of the boat captains. After slipping back into the water, she asked Williams to call her father for help.
“Why your father?” she was asked.
“Because he would pick up and I knew he had the right connections to make a call quickly,” she replied.
Riviere said someone aboard the damaged vessel used the light on his phone to attract attention, and another boat eventually came to their rescue.
Before taking them to Canaries, the rescuers retrieved the unresponsive body of Makeda Nestor from the water. She was later pronounced dead.
The passengers were taken from Canaries to Soufrière Hospital. Riviere and Williams were subsequently transferred to St Jude Hospital in Vieux Fort.
The other witnesses called on Wednesday were Jean Pierre Ralph Edward, Janelle Butcher, and Chris Jn Baptiste, all passengers aboard the Cazorla Jr.
Edward was inconsistent in his testimony about what boating certification he had. The Commission directed him to submit any supporting documents in his possession to the Soufrière Police Station by noon on Friday, October 16.
Butcher denied earlier testimony that he had acted as a lookout aboard the Cazorla Jr.
“I just hear something hit the boat…. I was not the lookout,” he said.
He recalled approaching the boat’s owner to request a ride from Gros Islet to Soufrière but would not confirm who had been captaining the vessel.
Commission members pointed to inconsistencies between Butcher’s statement to police and his testimony at the inquiry.
“I not here to twist and turn nothing,” he said.
Public Commission of Inquiry’s public hearing was adjourned until Wednesday, October 21.
