Tourist still recovering from April boating accident off Placencia

It never made it to the police blotter, but a diving incident in Belizean waters has left a Canadian tourist critically injured and hospitalised since April. According to an article from the Cyber Diver News Network, on Friday, April eighteenth, sixty year old Denis Turcotte and his son Alden arrived in Belize to dive. But when the father and son were in the waters off Lark’s Caye, four miles east of Placencia, disaster struck. Alden told the magazine that he was on the boat nursing a headache but his father and two companions were already in the water when another dive boat suddenly raced into the area. The divers tried to avoid the danger but Denis was not able to move fast or deep enough to escape the twin engine’s propeller blades. The props struck the tourist in the head and shattered his leg. Turcotte was rushed to the clinic in Independence and was later transferred to a private hospital in Belize City. Doctors there performed surgery to repair his shattered skull and ruptured brain sack. After being hospitalised for two days Turcotte was air ambulanced to Miami and on May seventh was again transferred to University Hospital in London, Ontario. News Five understands that the boat that struck Turcotte is named “Tyrone and Winslow” and was being driven by boat master Henry Tucker. At the time of the incident Tucker was returning from Gladden Spit. In his report to the Port Authority, Tucker claims that there was no dive flag up and he did not see the snorkellers. The boat driver says he only knew he hit someone when he felt an impact on the boat’s propeller. And while the U.S. news article stated that there were diving buoys designating the area as a dive site, today Commissioner of the Port Authority Lloyd Jones told us that their investigations reveal that that was not the case. The file has been forwarded to the port prosecutor who will consult with the police to determine what charges, if any, will be fined against the boat master. One charge which can be levied is that of Careless Navigation, which carries a fine of about two hundred fifty dollars. As for Turcotte, the retired X-ray technician has had five operations on his leg and is suffering from asphia, a disorder which impairs his ability to process language. Turcotte is currently undergoing speech therapy and should shortly be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital to get him back on his feet.