MV Barima survivors allege crew drinking, engine failures ahead of sinking
Survivors of the MV Barima disaster told a Commission of Inquiry in Mabaruma on Monday that crew members drank alcohol and smoked cannabis during the voyage, the ferry’s engine stopped twice and lifejackets were locked in a wooden cage.
The accounts emerged during a meeting with survivors and bereaved families in Region One, ahead of public hearings scheduled to begin on Wednesday, October 14. The allegations have yet to be determined by the commission.
Survivor Eve Jermone raised concerns about the crew’s conduct and described two engine stoppages during the journey.
“They drinking and smoking up they weed,” she told the commission.
Commissioner Nyree Dawn Alfonso asked, “the crew?” Jermone confirmed that she was referring to crew members.
“Yea because me hear them seh ‘cappy dont tek it too much bai’. If you see how them drinking, if you see beer pun the freezer top,” she said.
Jermone said the engine first stopped at about 5 p.m. and was restarted, before stopping again at about 9 p.m.
“…them meh she, ‘oh god how the engine cutting out suh tek kay we sink eh.’ Like me heart a beat quick quick…then they start up back again,” she recounted.
She said the ferry had been rocking, but she had not expected it to sink so suddenly.
“The boat didn’t rocking like…fah sink it suh sudden. It rock, yea, but one, one rocking and meh seh praise God we going safe…right weh the boat gone fah right suh is pun that side we been pun,” she said.
Another survivor told the commission that the vessel carried “nuff” lifejackets, but they were “lock up in a wood cage”.
He described struggling in darkness, unable to identify those around him.
“No light, somebody talking right deh to you, you cant see if is your brother or sister nothing,” he said.
Leon Murray, who lost six family members, said only he and his son survived from their family group aboard the ferry.
“This thing ain’t tek four minutes and gone down. I gone down with the boat. When me come out me done been bad already,” he told the commission.
Commission chairman Justice Godfrey Smith said the inquiry would investigate why the ferry capsized and sank, whether mistakes were made and whether established procedures were followed.
He stressed that the commission operated independently of the government.
“We are appointed by the President, but we do not form a part of the government. We are not an arm of the government,” Smith said.
He encouraged survivors and relatives to give evidence.
“You will help us and we will help you by trying to get to the truth of what happened,” he said.
White Water Village Toshao Andre Cox sought answers about people still missing, compensation for affected families and plans to salvage the ferry.
Smith said raising the vessel fell outside the commission’s remit.
“We are not involved in the rising of the vessel…we know that the government is looking at it….We don’t know how quickly that can be done,” he said.
During their visit, commissioners inspected the Kumaka waterfront, where the ferry docked on journeys from Georgetown, and the Kumaka packaging facility, where loading and weighing take place.
The inspections followed visits last Friday to the Transport and Harbours Department’s goods wharf, the department itself and the Maritime Administration Department.
The five-member commission is examining the vessel’s loading, passenger boarding, conditions aboard, seaworthiness, maintenance history and crew competence, alongside the search, rescue and recovery operations.
It will also determine whether laws and operating procedures were followed and whether negligence, misconduct, dereliction of duty or other failures contributed to the disaster.
Initially given two months to complete its work, the commission now has six months. More than 100 witnesses, including officials, survivors and relatives, are expected to give evidence.
Public hearings are scheduled to begin at the Lula Room of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Liliendaal.
Source: NEW ROOMS SITE
