SHARLENE RAMPERSAD
The man who has been blamed for preventing the rescue of four trapped LMCS divers on February 25 will testify before the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) set up to investigate their deaths this morning.
According to evidence given by several people to the Commission since it started, Collin Piper, Paria’s terminal operations manager, was the person who gave instructions that no one should enter the pipeline to attempt to rescue the men.
In his statements, Piper admitted that he gave the order but said it was unsafe to attempt a rescue.
Both Piper and Paria’s general manager, Mushtaq Mohammed were due to appear before the Commission on Tuesday but due to the company’s late submission of documents, the hearing was postponed. Those documents included a supplementary statement from Piper, in which he tried to explain his reasoning for preventing divers from attempting to rescue the men.
“At paragraph 98 of my principal statement I indicated that, among other things, I discussed with the ICT (Incident Command Team) that LMCS were diving into the pipeline in an entirely unplanned manner,” Piper’s latest statement said.
He goes on to quote another part of his previous statement which states, “I instructed Visham to inform LMCS that diving into the pipeline was not allowed because it was too dangerous based on advice received and the relevant factors.”
In his supplementary statement, Piper said the International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals was the authoritative text in the oil and gas industry on tanker safety and pollution prevention.
Piper said this guide was published by the International Chamber of Shipping, the Oil Companies International Marine Forum and the International Association of Ports and Harbors.
In his previous statement, Piper said the accident’s lone survivor, Christopher Boodram told him on the night of the accident that he did not believe his colleagues were alive.
In his testimony at the start of the commission, Boodram hotly denied this, saying he would never say that as he had been begging everyone he came into contact with after he was rescued to help his colleagues.
The CoE was set up to investigate the deaths of four LMCS divers in the aftermath of an accident at Paria’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility on February 25.
On that day, Boodram, Kazim Ali Junior, Yusuf Henry, Fyzal Kurban and Rishi Nagassar were doing maintenance work on a 30-inch pipeline when tragedy struck.
The five were employees of LMCS Limited and were carrying out maintenance works at Paria’s Berth 6 when the accident occurred.
Boodram survived but his four colleagues did not.
LMCS has accused Paria of preventing rescue as the company said Boodram made it clear his colleagues were alive when he was rescued. An overwhelming national outcry for justice for the four eventually led to the commission being set up to investigate the accident.