Boat crashes on Haulover Creek

Mishaps at sea are not uncommon over Easter but the only one reported this weekend occurred while a vessel was still in the river.

The water taxi, “Sunrise,” had just passed the Belize Fiberglass Motors at two miles on the Northern Highway, and was on its way back, when the vessel, captained by Gregory Perry, went out of control and slammed into a couple of boats that were anchored in front of the boat building shop. Dennis Bradley is the owner of the company.

Dennis Bradley, Jr., Owner, Belize Fiberglass Motors

“This boat behind me, “Sunrise,” came in and went down the river in good speed in excess of 50 miles an hour. It turn back about five minutes later and I was working in the boat, behind your camera and he missed that boat – apparently he lost control of his vessel, went beyond this boat, came out at the back behind this boat over here and hit that boat and then went inside into my neighbor’s fence.”

The incident is one Bradley says has become all too familiar on the Haulover Creek and it is about time the problem is addressed.

Dennis Bradley

“It has to start at the Port Authority. I believe that captains should be licensed and rated, dress attire and they must have some standard of speed anywhere, because allow them to access the water all overloaded. It’s many of them that go overloaded. They try to enforce that law but if the Port is not around, there is absolutely no way that would be done.”

Bradley estimates the damage to be around thirty thousand Belize dollars.

The most heavily damaged boat was the “Thistle,” owned by Bill Bowman. Port Authority officials were today on the scene investigating the incident.