THE TRIBUNE has a thick jet-ski file in its morgue. Through this column, starting in the early-1990s, we have urged government to introduce legislation to regulate jet ski operators on beaches in the Bahamas. We have written several columns urging the policing of jet-ski and water sports operations.
After a 22-year-old tourist was killed in a jet ski accident in February 1991, the late Dr Matthew Rose, Port Authority Chairman, decided to ban all jet ski operations when licences expired at the end of that year. In the meantime, the operators formed themselves into an association. They went to Dr Rose and pleaded with him to rescind the ban. In return they would discipline their members in an effort to save their businesses. The ban was lifted. However, nothing changed. Mayhem continued on the beach.
Deaths and injuries mounted. Complaints grew to a crescendo. Hoteliers complained that jet ski operators were putting lives at risk because laws to control them were not being enforced: The public called for a total ban.
In the wake of the many jet-ski and boating accidents that occur every year in the Bahamas, the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association at the end of last year again called for legislation and enforcement.
The British High Commission issued an advisory for the 70,000 UK tourists who are attracted to the Bahamas annually. Said the advisory in part:
“The water sports industry in the Bahamas is very poorly regulated. Every year people are killed or seriously injured by the improper use of jet-skis or other water craft or by the careless or reckless operation of such equipment by others.
“In view of a number of recent fatal accidents, we advise you not to rent jet-skis in New Providence and Paradise Island unless you are experienced jet-ski users.”
The death of three-year-old Paul Gallagher three years ago has again turned the spotlight on the dangerous industry in the Bahamas. Baby Paul was asleep at his mother’s side at Paradise Island beach when an out of control power boat, moving at 30mph and towing a banana boat, lunged onto the beach. As it flew through the air, the propellor hit the child and split his head in two. Five days later Paul died of his injuries. A British coroner who reviewed the accident, urged the Bahamas government to prosecute. It was claimed that at the time of the accident the company that owned the runaway boat was not registered, licensed or insured.
However, a damning documentary broadcast by ITV Carlton in the UK on July 26 has Europeans, holidaying as far away as the lush resorts of the Middle East, talking. We understand that after the public broadcast in England, the television documentary was, shown at arecent Ministry of Tourism planning workshop to explore the possibility of establishing a Bahamas Visitors Safety Board here. Making a presentation at the seminar was an official from Aruba.
The UK documentary opens with a wild scene in the water just off Paradise Island beach – jet ski operators zoom back and forth, in and out, zig-zagging in crazy and dangerous patterns among swimmers, running their craft up on the beach – a frightening and dangerous scene.
Mark Durden-Smith, the presenter of the programme, “Package Holiday Undercover”, opened with these words: “Now, none of us would feel particularly safe if we went sunbathing in a car park, would we? That’s just stating the obvious: But there is a beach in the Bahamas where that’s basically what happened, except the vehicles passing by are on water, not on land. The beach at Paradise Island has an appalling record for injuries and unfortunately deaths too. So we went to investigate.”
Because of the numerous complaints about the beaches of the Bahamas, particularly Paradise, “Package Holiday Undercover” invited Dave Garvey, one of the world’s top watersports instructors, to go undercover on the beach at Paradise Island. Mr Garvey is an adviser to the Irish Sailing Association and internationally recognised as an expert in watersports safety.
He spent two days undercover on Paradise Island beach, which shocked him into commenting that what he saw was “just like a nightmare.” He was forced to conclude that there “doesn’t appear to be any safety culture or that safety procedures are being enforced by anybody.”
He watched as safety laws for parasailing, banana boats and jet-skis were openly broken. Alan Fein, a lawyer, told ITV2 viewers that “the Bahamian government could fix this problem tomorrow if they were of a mind to, and I can’t tell you why it’s not that important to them.”
The Port Authority, the government department that licenses watersports operators and which is supposed to police their activities, was seriously criticised on the programme. “Undercover” discovered that, in at least one case, a serious conflict of interest existed. The allegations are so damaging that government has a duty to investigate.
If true then there is an extremely serious problem at the very heart of the enforcement body.
Editorial from The Tribune, Nassau Bahamas
