Guyana: Board of Inquiry will be formed, announces Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill

Guyana: A Board of Inquiry will investigate the crash at DHB, which caused structural damages.

Following a media conference, on Friday, Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill has announced the formation of a “Board of Inquiry” into the incident, crash into the Demerara Harbour Bridge by the MV Tradewind Passion, a ship consigned by Guyoil to transport fuel, which also carries a Panamanian flag. The formation of BOI was essential as the crash has caused structural damages and rendered the bridge inoperable.

“We have just completed a meeting with the Board of Directors, along with other stakeholders and we have established a Board of Enquiry into this. The BOE would comprise Captain Joseph Lewis – a Marine Officer and Surveyor of Ships, Thandi McAllister – Director of Legal Affairs at MARAD, Yolanda Hughes – a Member of the Board and a Staff of Transport and Harbours Department, Inspector Ross of the Marine Division of the Guyana Police Force, Lt. Col. David Shamsudeen – Coast Guard, Patrick Thompson – Chief Transport & Planning Officer MOPW and Dimitri Ali, Member of the Board of Directors of the Guyana National Shipping Corporation.”

The board will begin its work from Saturday.

The MV Tradewind Passion was the final vessel to transit the bridge when the incident occurred. Minister Edghill said five vessels in total were scheduled to pass at that particular time, and four had already successfully passed when the incident occurred.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Government, President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali and the entire cabinet, Minister Edghill has expressed his gratitude to Members of the Private Sector and other stakeholders for their support throughout this most unfortunate ordeal.

“Right now, work has started; the assessment was initially done with a boat and flashlights at 4 AM this morning; we were there, and at the break of day, we were able to see things better, and work is ongoing. We want to assure the public that the Government of Guyana we are doing everything humanly possible; we are sparing no resource and taking no shortcuts, but we want to deliver to you a service so many thousands of people depend on daily, and that is the usage of this bridge, and this will be a good time for all of us to remind ourselves that we were absolutely right and correct when we went out for a tender for a new high span four-lane concrete bridge, so we don’t have a situation as we have here today and like we had some weeks ago, similar to this situation.”

The Minister, along with DHB General Manager, Wayne Watson, visited and inspected work done thus far on the damaged section of the bridge.