11 year old killed in boating accident
It should have been one of the happiest days of his life but a young Dangriga resident died on his birthday following a boating accident. According to police, around eight-thirty on Monday morning, a twenty-five foot skiff captained by forty year old Richard “Bo-Beep” Sjogreen ran over a fourteen foot aluminum boat on the southern side of the Tobacco Caye range. In the smaller vessel were forty-two year old fisherman John Petillo and his eleven year old son Francis. The father was unharmed but the child was declared dead on arrival at the Southern Regional Hospital and was transferred this afternoon to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for a post mortem. According to Petillo, his son didn’t want to go to school yesterday, which is why he ended up on a fishing trip.
John Petillo, Father
“Me and my son…(crying)…”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
“You were in the water?”
John Petillo
“No I meh deh fishing…I deh pan the left hand side so, he deh pan the right hand side so, side ah mi ova the next side and yu know the boat come right between me and my son, knock mi boy overboard, ker my son. Jesus Christ.”
Janelle Chanona
“He used to like fishing no?”
John Petillo
“Fram he baan we deh dah caye, from eh baan we deh caye, all ah them. Every Easter, every summer we deh dah caye, even when Easter no deh or summer we still go dah caye. From eight thirty the morning. We gawn out gaan fishing seven o’clock and eight thirty this happen eena the morning.”
Janelle Chanona
“And this dah wah usual spot?”
John Petillo
“I live deh forty-one, I deh da sea fi forty-one years. Den deh da mi fishing areas.”
Janelle Chanona
“I understand eh me rough out deh, yu think they neva see unu?”
John Petillo
“No ih neva that—to me eh neva dat rough. The guy tell me that he mi di come, he mi di come fi dodge from the lee roughness and thing. And I see the boat di come but I no see nobody because fu he bow cock up high you know. When he do realise da because he done hit, he done run pan tap ah fu we boat and thing like dat.”
Janelle Chanona
“So you neva even gat chance fu halla?”
John Petillo
“I neva gat chance fu halla. The man seh eh sorry and all ah deh thing right but me lee bway…yeah, I had to jump and dive. He di dive di look fu me lee bway and when I jump da water, I swim lee ways from the boat and dah den I find ah unda the water and I pick ah up.”
Janelle Chanona
“He knocked his head?”
John Petillo
“Yeah, ih knock ih head. Ih got wah knock eena ih temple deh and dat’s it yu know.”
According to Petillo his son will be buried at three on Friday afternoon at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Dangriga. Up to news time, no charges had been filed against Sjogreen in connection with the accident.
