Cops deny ignoring Jolly Roger collision

| 24/11/2014

(CNS): The police have said that the collision between the 45 tonne Jolly Roger and a group of teenagers in a boat made from cardboard, which occured on Saturday 15 November, was not reported to them until the Monday after the incident. An RCIPS spokesperson said that a marine unit was assigned to the cardboard regatta, which was part of the Pirates Week activities. He said that the officers aboard did not ignore pleas for help from the teenagers, one of whom sustained a mild concussion when the pirate ship sank their home-made boat, but were unaware of the situation. The police, he said, were rescuing other people whose cardboard boats had sunk.

As the officers were behind the Jolly Roger, they did not witness the collision.

However, the police have confirmed that an investigation is underway and when complete a file will be passed to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for a ruling regarding the possible prosecution of the captain at the time.

Police said that officers from the joint marine unit were at the time engaged “rendering assistance to other participants of the race whose vessel had sunk” and the incident was not reported to the police until Monday 17 November by a concerned citizen who had witnessed the event and who was “deeply concerned”, the police spokesperson stated.

There were no calls received by the emergency communication centre (911) on the afternoon of the incident. A teenage girl who was in the cardboard boat and was hit on the head as the pirate ship ploughed over the cardboard boat was treated for a mild concussion.

“While we cannot go into specifics of the investigation, we can confirm that statements have been recorded from the injured party and her parents,” the police stated Friday. “All persons spoken to so far have indicated that they did not alert any of the authorities at the time for assistance.”

Anyone who witnessed the incident can contact Inspector Ian Yearwood or Constable Cyril Gordon on 949-7710. 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Category: Local News

About the Author ()

Comments (13)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    The police will spin yet another Conny blan story just like they did with the JMU CB mission What a load of Croc that was.

  2. Anonymous says:

    I was on the Jolly Roger and the kids were having a right good laugh.  Kudos to the cap'n for joining in the fun and shame on the pathetic kill joy that made the complaint.  Get a life!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Was the site deemed an exclusion zone?

    If not then the Port Authourity is to blame not the police and not the capatain of the Jolly Roger.

    What you say Paul?

    It was a Saturday so maybe you earn a tiny bit of that call out allowance.

  4. Anonymous says:

    It is so sad to see how exaggerated this incident has become especially when most of it is made up.  For starters… The Jolly Roger did not sink this boat as it was clearly still floating without damage and the paddlers made it to shore with the boat safely.  

    Here is a few other things to consider — 

    1) the girl in question was on stage laughing and cheering and receiving her prizes with her team and running off to split the prizes.  Sorta weird for someone who the media is saying cracked her head open.

    2) the girl is clearly seen jumping to the left of her cardboard boat before the Jolly Roger came upon them making it pretty hard to say she was pulled under and hit her head on a 45 ton vessel.  

    3) media reports of the kids being frightened for their lives seems pretty hard to believe with a nice photo of the Jolly Roger alongside them and one of the boys standing up smiling and showing both his middle fingers to the pirates on board the Jolly Roger.

    CNS I will gladly email you these pictures that I have to support the above statements.  Feel free to post and let the readers decide if you want to be fair and unbiased as you claim to be.

    Regards

    James Bing 

    CNS Note: The pictures are posted above.

    • Anonymous says:

      The parents are clearly being mislead as this is an easy million dollar law suit. 

  5. Anonymous says:

    see no evil, hear no evil "do" no evil..

  6. Anonymous says:

    The captain of the Jolly Roger should be held responsible and should have be the first person to notify the Marine Unit on VHF radio.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I was right there and saw what happened and as the video showed before it was conveniently taken down, they clearly could see what was happening and were laughing!! NOT reacting to the situation. They never even tried to help out , nothing, no reaction at all.

  8. Anonymous says:

    And in other news….the Police also rarely see poor and/or illegal driving practices on out roads daily…."as they are engaged in other activities". SMH.

  9. Sir Henry Morgan says:

    Yeah right! They saw it but were to afraid of the Jolly Roger's cannons to take action!

  10. Anonymous9 says:

    The Jolly Roger should not have been in motion AT ALL.  The home made boats obviously wouldn't have marine radios and the noise on board the JR would have been so loud that even if the passengers tried to warn the captain, he would have no chance to hear in time.  What on earth must he have been thinking…

  11. Anonymous says:

    RCIPS always has an excuse for doing their jobs!!

  12. Anonymous says:

    Maybe one of the thousands of spectators at the event could call Inspector Yearwood and sort this out – a week after the fact Cayman!