Coast Guard Conducting Investigation into Fatal Accident at Sea

Elton Bennett

Even though first information is that Garcia lost his life by accident, Coast Guard Commandant, Rear Admiral Elton Bennett says that separate investigations will be carried out by the police, the coast guard, and the Belize Port Authority to determine how exactly the accident happened. Seaman Garcia is described as very energetic and enthusiastic about his job.

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“He’s a seaman. He has been with us for a few years. He’s someone that is very energetic, very enthusiastic about his job. I’ve never received a bad report about him so he’s someone that we have a lot of respect for. He was very young; he had a very bright future in the organization. He’s from the Belize River Valley area. Quite a few of our sailors are from that area, and he worked in the northern sector of operations, so that’s the geographic area that he has been working for quite some time. So he’s very familiar with that area. He had just completed his three weeks of operational duty. Internally, we’ll be looking at – the immediate action is to try to get together, try to console each other and then pick up the pieces and see what areas we can improve on in terms of safety, if there were any breaches of safety, and then we continue from there.”

Marion Ali

“Are the sailors insured? What kind of assistance, particularly if they are the breadwinners for their families, are there any kinds of follow-up assistance?”

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett

“Yes, there are benefits that members of the Coast Guard would receive. Then if there’s any additional insurance that the individual has, then of course that will come into play, but each member of the service is entitled to what we call a death in harness that is provided for by the government.”