Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has called for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of a ban on all jet ski ac­tiv­i­ties near the pop­u­lar bathing ar­eas at Pi­geon Point, To­ba­go.

In a Face­book post be­fore mid­night on Thurs­day, Row­ley said he felt dev­as­tat­ed by the death of San Fer­nan­do TML stu­dent An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie, 7, who was struck and killed by a jet ski while at the pop­u­lar beach with her fam­i­ly on Wednes­day.

Row­ley ex­pressed con­do­lences to An­gel­i­ca’s par­ents, Arnold and Sal­isha Jo­gie, say­ing words could not de­scribe the pain they are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing.

“May God grant you the courage to face the days ahead and may lov­ing mem­o­ries for­ev­er hold in your heart of our lit­tle an­gel, An­gel­i­ca,” he said.

Row­ley said he was gripped by the tragedy, as mere days be­fore, he had been at the ex­act lo­ca­tion with four of his grand­chil­dren, ages three to 11, their par­ents, cousins and friends.

“There, but for the grace of God, it could eas­i­ly have been any one of us or more who could have been the vic­tim of a sim­i­lar ac­ci­dent. Hav­ing been in the wa­ter there as de­scribed, I shud­der at the very thought every time my mind re­turns to that beau­ti­ful child frol­ick­ing in this idyl­lic scene, on­ly to be mowed down to her death,” he said.

Row­ley re­called see­ing jet skis whizzing past the “en­clo­sure” des­ig­nat­ed for bathing and feel­ing un­easy.

“... I felt un­com­fort­able be­cause in the shim­mer­ing, splash­ing wa­ter sur­face, that thin rope, large­ly in­vis­i­ble, is more of a hope than a pro­tec­tive de­ter­rent.”

He said the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) needs to take firm ac­tion to en­sure there is no re­peat.

“The THA needs to in­sti­tute and en­force a ban on the op­er­a­tion of jet skis at or near the main bathing beach­es at Pi­geon Point. To­ba­go has enough for every­one, but we need to make de­ci­sions that will keep jet skis away from bathers. THA pay­ing mil­lions for loss of life is not a sat­is­fy­ing sub­sti­tute for the loss or se­ri­ous in­jury to a mem­ber of any fam­i­ly. We need to act now be­fore this, or worse, hap­pens again.”

At a me­dia con­fer­ence on Thurs­day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said he was con­sid­er­ing an out­right ban on jet ski ac­tiv­i­ties. He not­ed it would not be the first time such a mea­sure would be im­ple­ment­ed, as in 2011, un­der the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion, the in­dus­try was shut down ow­ing to sim­i­lar reck­less be­hav­iour.