Tourism Minister Senator Robert Tonge has revealed that all the individuals who were injured in the vehicular accident in the Antrim area on November 9 are out of Dominica and are undergoing further medical attention overseas.
He made that statement while speaking on Kairi FM’s Heng Programme on Thursday morning.
The accident claimed the life of a British national who arrived onboard P&O Cruises, Azura that morning and several others were injured.
“All the individuals who were injured, and also the lady who passed unfortunately, they are out of Dominica right now. One or two of them are in Martinique doing further medical attention, some of them are back in England,” he revealed. “What I can say is that we have received letters from the cruise ships and the cruise lines already thanking us in terms of the manner which we have handled the situation, the manner in which we took care of the individuals who were impacted by the unfortunate event.”
Tonge stated that following the accident, officials from the Ministry of Tourism, including himself, visited the victims involved every day to make sure they were okay.
“Even many Dominicans who heard of the incident went to the hospital and also brought them fruits and flowers,” he stated.
He explained that on the day the accident occurred the medical staff at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) was prepared and ready in terms of handling mass casualties.
“I think the hospital did a fantastic job in terms of handling the situation,” he said.
He described the road where the accident occurred as “a perfectly good piece of road, a straight piece of road.”
“It was just unfortunate that someone was driving without due care and attention which caused the accident,” Tonge said. “It was no fault of the driver of the bus…but accidents do happen.”
He said the Ministry of Tourism is putting measures in place to reduce tourism-related accidents.
“Drivers have to go through a rigorous training programme, the buses are inspected every year as a result of that,” he explained. “Addition to that, we have actually put additional things in place, they have to bring a mechanical report on the bus, just to make sure it’s in proper condition. We will be doing spot checks on the buses to make sure that some of them if they are not in good condition we can get them out of the system.”
In addition, he stated, the police at the ports are checking buses to ensure that they have proper tires.
Meantime the minister warns about spreading negative news, which he believes will do more harm than good to the country.
“It’s just unfortunate that positive news is not spread as much as negative news. You can go on any site and you can see it…,” he remarke. “We have to be cognisant of that and we have to ensure that we protect what is ours.”
Tonge added, “What is ours is beautiful Dominica and we have to be careful how we spread those messages and the impact that it will have on individuals.”
Minister, self-praise will not improve the image of D/can because negative criticisms were levelled at those in authority on island in British television and press, post the vechular accident.
d staff was prepared for the mass casualties at the PMH an why when our local come at the PMH there are little or no attention to us local u tonge u need to start talk the turth about ting majority of wat u say is jus a big lie
Minister Tonge is not The tourist alone that was injured. what about the bus driver thats in the hospital currently. so therefore isnot the tourist alone that get blouse
Grace, I hope that bus driver recovers fully and pray that blouse does not turn into a, skirt!
What about training for drivers? The requirements to get a driver’s license in Dominica if fully outdated and needs to be replaced. License are issued without the applicant undergoing an eye exam, no proper training in driving etiquette and attention paid to training drivers driving in challenging conditions(eg .wet roads) is nonexistent.
Hope, I agree. Many bus drivers are horrible drivers! I have been almost forced off the road too many times by bus drivers going to fast and overtaking on curves.
Bus drivers should be routinely tested for drug & alcohol use and eye sight.
Ok Mr senator i understand what you are saying what I don’t get is that nothing is being said or done about the driver and passenger’s of the car which caused the accident was is driven by alien’s I’m not seeing or hearing any reports from the police that arrest have been made its so sad that the lady didn’t enjoy her visit to our country she lost her life through ppl who are driving recklessly I’m getting annoyed by that p
Aliens driving rental cars now in Dominica? Boy I did not know E.T. is a tourist. Maybe he should have stuck to a bicyle?
It is good to hear some positive feedback on the accident. It is also good to hear that the hospital staff was ready and is trained for such situation, and i hope in the future that the same way they treated the tourist casualties that they will do the same for locals.
mr. minister the driver of the bus is of no importance to u the man is still 50/50 and i have heard u several time on this matter and all u talk about is the visitor and buses while the young man is still at the pmh struggling for life?
I wonder if any one of us had a serious accident in London, would any member of the British cabinet pay us a visit at the hospital? The answer a big no.
god bless our beautiful land those who are calling woe on this precious land is doomed for eternity.. we rebuke them and may god bless Dominica.
Bus drivers in Dominica drive too reckless; it is disgusting to see onlookers filming the people who were hurt and posting it online; this is so awful.
In this case the bus driver was not at fault.
Condolence to the family of the lady who was so tragically killed and a speedy recovery to the other injured passengers.it is good that measures are being put in place to train the bus drivers of tourists.As a country we always seem to be retroactive rather than proactive.There should be a program in place to rigorously train bus drivers for local Dominicans.This should be a universal training for all bus drivers in Dominica.It shouldn’t be that anyone can just buy a bus and decide to run a bus without any training.Other areas beside the ones identified should be included in the training e.g. Consideration for passengers re excessively loud music , maximum speed for buses , overtaking round a corner penalties, adequate insurance to cover any accident injuries to customers , police record to exclude criminals, litter control. It would be useful also to train the drivers driving slowly because of sightseeing Tourist to stop intermittently and to let backed up traffic pass.
That’s why we need the hospital in the Marigot area to be fixed and updated. Let us hope nothing like this happens in that area or at the airport.
Guy you need to do something in the interest of the country along the line of development. Who cares if the victims are still in Dominica, or in hospital in their country?
It is a bloody accident, people get into accident every and get killed! It is not a big deal, it was an unfortunate accident, someone got killed, in others countries, that happens everyday, there is no need to dwell on that.
The crap you are talking is not going to influence more visitors to the country, what may influence more foreign nationals to Dominica is an International Airport and massive advertisement of the country in America, Canada, Europe, and the rest of the more developed world.
There must be developed places of interest for the tourist to visit, decent places of entertainment, nobody want to go to visit a country where they can’t sit in a good restaurant, and eat, now do they want to go into a dirty rum shop to stand and drink white rum!
The same day the lady arrived she died in the accident? Whatever time of day, be it the same day or later, it is unfortunate that this occurred. It makes it even more shocking.
Tonge stated that following the accident, officials from the Ministry of Tourism, including himself, visited the victims involved every day to make sure they were okay.
“Even many Dominicans who heard of the incident went to the hospital and also brought them fruits and flowers,” he stated.
I am also impressed with the Dominicans who brought fruits and flowers to them. I always know Dominica has some very kind and compassionate people. God bless you!
Bus drivers must get a good night’s sleep. No drinking the night before.
Their vehicles should also be equipped with seat belts for each passenger. All should be seated with seat belts strapped. The bus should not be overloaded.
Negativism do send the wrong message. It could turn off prospective visitors.
Facts, a few years ago while driving out of Canada heading back to Los Angeles, it began to rain, next thing I know an Air France 747 arriving from France, on touching down the aircraft ran off the Runway, killing how many!
The dead did not have time to touch the ground in Canada; so what’s the big idea that she died the first day she got to Dominica. Blame the drunken ignorant Dominica drivers for the death, because they are always showing off to people how they drive!
They act as if driving is a professional skill that they only they have; so they are going to show off to the tourist how much they can speed on the narrow winding roads in Dominica, they do that to impress the tourist!
The fact is some of the people they are trying to impress have three and four cars in their drive way where they came from. In America, if you own a single motor vehicle you may be left stranded when it breaks down, the buss my not be a pleasant experience.
Stop your ramblings only in…
You stop yours, you goody-two shoes. You can never comment respectfully.
Yea, right you humor me, not with a direct lie this time, but with those little yellow and green head men, you hope to eat me alive!
Hahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
But that will not happen: ( Remember I is Dominican too; and me have me repellents, ah know how fu work obeah too, ah Wesley me come fram eh)! Ah plenty kojoo root bush wid me and some Dominica dirt (the earth wid me) an me know how fu do um fu repel de obeah you put pan dem little green man fu come eat me eh!
Sad sorry. Seriously, He means well but I just saw the injure bus driver (a local) at PMH being transported down a hallway dy a team of Dr”s. Yet the minister said “All the individuals who were injured, and also the lady who passed unfortunately, they re out of Dominica right now. One or two of them are in Martinique doing further medical attention, some of them are back in England “. I wish All well and speedy recovery, but Am. I missing something here?
Cruise schedule, Roseau Nov. 2016.
Next week, commencing 21 Nov. only two ships are scheduled to arrive in Roseau:
– tuesd. 22 Nov., “AidaDiva”, 08.00-18.00 hrs., max. pass. 2,500
– weds. 23 Nov. “Celebrity Summit”, 08.00 – 17.00 hrs., max. pass. 2,590
Something should be put in place to discourage speeding by other vehicles on the roads. A public awareness campaign and police should check speeds. Some young men seem to have ego problems and find it necessary to drive far too fast through villages and at any opportunity they can. Overtaking other drivers and increasing risk of accidents.
its all well and good that the tourist recieved the best of care here… but nothing is being mentioned about the bus driver who is still a patient and in need of further medical attention. absolutely nothing about the driver of the car who caused the accident… arent our people of any importance
I was a passenger on the same cruise as the unfortunate passengers in the mini bus. I walked with my wife to the Botanical Gardens and were impressed with them as a tourist attraction. We walked through the Main Street and small back streets,without any problems,however on our return to the ship we were made aware of a mugging and necklaces being ripped from people’s necks. What a shame ,we won’t be doing these Islands again . The only ones which felt safe were St Maarten and Barbados.
He described the road where the accident occurred as “a perfectly good piece of road, a straight piece of road.”
Not quite. Along the straight stretch there is a deep pothole, next to a fallen rock, that necessitates downhill vehicles having to veer to the middle of the road. The guard rails are damaged and there is no signage alerting drivers to slow down in readiness for the blind corners at each end.
The accident happened, not along the straight stretch, but at the upper blind corner.
It would be nice to make public the letters that you received from the cruise ship and cruise lines.
I have yet to hear an official account of what happened. Yes accidents do occur but there is always a reason. Furthermore, I haven’t heard from any officials about the condition of the driver, or the condition of the other driver. Are there going to be any charges filed against either of the two drivers. Since u mentioned that it’s not the bus driversI fault, I am left to wonder whose fault it is. The road was as you said not the problem. What exactly caused the accident?
if im going to spread good, I will also spread the bad
Well Said Mister Minister.
The ministry is putting measures in place to reduce tourist related accidents, which is good Mr. Minister, but he’ll with local? Are u saying visitors are tagetted and therefore u must protect them. These ministers are sounding so childish man. If measures are put in place to protect everyone then visitors and all will be protected
Plz so u trying to tell us that a hospital for foreign and not for us cause look like everybody that go there staying there