Sharon Arneaud, the wife of former T&T ambassador to the United States and former president of the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce Michael Arneaud, died in a boating accident after attending an evening mass at “Priest’s Bay,” off Monos Island.
Four other people, among them her husband, were badly injured when they were all flung into the murky water after their pleasure boat ran aground. Up to late yesterday, Michael, who sustained severe shoulder and head injuries, remained warded at West Shore Private Hospital in Cocorite. He was listed in critical condition. He was yet to be told of his wife’s death, a close friend said in an interview yesterday. Sharon reportedly received a punctured lung and died from her injuries.

Also listed in satisfactory condition at the hospital were Dr Ormond Mendes and his wife Judy, and Patrice Pantin. Judy, police said, received serious injuries to the mouth, resulting in several of her teeth being knocked out. Mendes, the friend said, migrated a few years ago and arrived in the country to visit friends two days ago.
Relatives and friends gathered at the bedside of the injured at West Shore Private Hospital yesterday. “It’s tragic...This is the last thing we would have expected,” a friend said. According to the Coast Guard, a distress call was received at Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas, around 7.19 pm on Saturday.

The vessel, identified as Sisu, and carrying the five, was said to have run aground and flipped several times at Balmoral Bay, also called Turtle Bay, near Monos Island. Alerted by screams, Monos Island residents rushed to the aid of the injured. Coast Guard officers arrived some ten minutes later with a medical team which transferred the five on board Interceptors 022 and 024. A close friend of Pantin described the incident as “very unfortunate,” adding that the accident was “shocking.” “It’s difficult to see how the vessel could run aground unless it was travelling at a high speed,” the friend said. Contacted yesterday, public relations officer for the Coast Guard Lt Kirk Jean-Baptiste appealed to boat operators to exercise due care and attention when operating their vessels, especially at night.

Flashback

American national Paige Welch and her mother Raquel were badly injured in August when a soldier in a pirogue crashed into the kayak in which mother and daughter were occupants. That accident was somewhat similar to that which occurred in Tobago in June, 2007.
Yanik Quesnel, 17, of Cascade in Port-of-Spain, and his girlfriend, Carolino Barry-Laso, 16, of Spain, were seriously injured when they were run over by a pirogue. They were bathing several yards from the shoreline at Pigeon Point at the time. Yanik sustained a skull fracture, which resulted in brain injury, while Barry-Laso suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm and leg. Up to September, last year, Quesnel was unable to walk. Investigations into those two mishaps are ongoing.