Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Three months af­ter a fa­tal jet ski ac­ci­dent killed sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie in To­ba­go, no charges have been laid.

How­ev­er, Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Rod­hill Kirk said po­lice are ex­pect­ed to con­sult the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions again this week for fur­ther in­struc­tions.

An­gel­i­ca and her fam­i­ly were bathing at Pi­geon Point on May 11 when a jet ski ploughed in­to the re­strict­ed zone and struck the child and three oth­er rel­a­tives.

The San Fer­nan­do TML stu­dent was pro­nounced dead at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

A male sus­pect who fled the scene was ar­rest­ed hours lat­er at his home in Canaan but re­leased pend­ing fur­ther in­quiries.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Kirk said po­lice are be­ing metic­u­lous in their ap­proach as it is the first ever crim­i­nal probe in such an in­ci­dent.

He said that af­ter pre­vi­ous­ly ap­proach­ing the DPP, of­fi­cers were as­signed spe­cif­ic tasks which are close to com­ple­tion. He said once those are ex­e­cut­ed, the DPP would be con­sult­ed for fur­ther ad­vice.

Last month, An­gel­i­ca’s fa­ther Arnold Jo­gie ex­pressed con­cern with the pace of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, but was adamant that jus­tice must be served.

The fa­tal ac­ci­dent has raised se­ri­ous con­cern over the use of jet skis and the threat to pub­lic safe­ty.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said even af­ter the crash, man­age­ment at Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park had flagged re­peat­ed breach­es by jet ski op­er­a­tors putting bathers at risk. An in­junc­tion sought by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) pre­vi­ous­ly banned jet ski op­er­a­tors from tra­vers­ing the Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park, Pi­geon Point and Buc­coo Beach.

How­ev­er, Jus­tice Sher­lanne Pierre has found a com­pro­mise for all par­ties, with jet skis now per­mit­ted to op­er­ate but un­der strict reg­u­la­tions.

Jet skis are pro­hib­it­ed from the Ny­lon Pool and must stay at least 100m from any bar­ri­ers or buoys de­not­ing a bathing-on­ly zone or the in­flat­able park at Pi­geon Point.

They must al­so keep 50m clear of the Pi­geon Point Jet­ty and are banned from per­form­ing stunts and al­low­ing mi­nors to op­er­ate.