A tourist was killed yesterday while snorkeling near Turneffe Atoll. 70 year old Jeffrey Le Beau was with in a tour group including his two sons. They were reported to be within a carefully marked area when the elderly visitor was run over by a speeding boat. The captain has since been detained. ComPol Williams gave us details.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yesterday a group of tourists were snorkeling I think in the area of Turneffe. From my understanding, the area where they were snorkeling, the tour guides had the area marked off as they would normally do to indicate that there is activity taking place there and a boat came from nowhere and just ran through the place at very high speed. And ran over the tourist causing the tourist's death. The boat captain is currently in police custody. The investigators and personnel from the Port Authority went out to the scene this morning, they should be returning some time this evening but from what I am seeing, I'm not going to be the one to determine if the boat captain should be charged or not but from what I am seeing based on what has been told to me, that is a clear case of causing death by careless conduct. I think at the very least, the boat captain should be charged for causing death by careless conduct. It is common knowledge to all of these tour operators that when you see certain things in the water as markers, you are to avoid those areas because people are either diving or snorkeling there and the tour operators who took out the tourist discharged their responsibility by making sure that they had marked off the place to indicate to any boat that would come in the area that that is an area where people are either diving or snorkeling."
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