KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Jan 12 2015, CNS – Five people were killed Monday when a bus carrying several school children plunged into the sea at Rock Gutter, a community between Owia and Fancy in north-eastern St. Vincent.
Communications officer in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment, Neeka Anderson-Isaacs, said that two people are missing and 10 have been hospitalised at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) while four others are at the hospital in Georgetown.
The Ministry of Health said that approximately 21 passengers, including 14 students from the North Union and Georgetown Secondary Schools respectively, were in the bus when the incident occurred.
“Fifteen persons were initially seen at the Owia Clinic, where one was confirmed dead. The driver, who is alive and is himself nursing injuries, reportedly assisted in the rescue efforts,” Anderson-Isaacs said.
The communications officer said that the ministry has activated its mass casualty management plan.
Adjustments were made at MCMH — the nation’s main health care facility — to accommodate the emergency.
“The Accident and Emergency unit was transformed to accommodate injured persons as well as to provide counselling for family members.
Minister of Health Wellness and the Environment Clayton Burgin, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Simone Keizer-Beache, Chief Nursing Officer and Permanent Secretary Luis de Shong were on hand at the hospital assisting medical staff and giving support to family members.
“Additionally the Ministry sent two ambulances from Kingstown with staff nurses and emergency medical supplies to augment the staff deployed from the Georgetown hospital and the mental health facility in Orange Hill to assist in the emergency management process,” Anderson-Isaacs said.
A grief stricken Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, speaking on national radio, said the “entire nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines…has been touched by this tragedy of national proportion.
“We all grieve and ask God for guidance and strength as well as we lean on one another,” he said, noting that the recovery of bodies from the sea is ongoing.
“Some of the questions you have are not fully answered, that will come in due time, right now it is the task of making sure that everyone is accounted for. We cannot yet give up hope because there (is) hope we can find additional survivors as inhospitable as the conditions are, we have to hope…and we have to put the pieces back together and to see what we can do to try to ensure that this…tragedy does not happen again,” Gonsalves said.
In the wake of the tragedy, Prime Minister Gonsalves has announced a postponement of his budget speech that was scheduled to have been delivered to Parliament on Monday.
