KEVON FELMINE 

Se­nior Re­porter 

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

While many have raised ques­tions about the safe­ty mea­sures at Il­lu­sion’s Solset: Su­per­no­va Pre­mi­um Drinks Fete at San Fer­nan­do Hill last Sat­ur­day, af­ter Re­nee Mitchell fell and died, Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Jerome “Rome” Pre­cil­la said there were ad­e­quate safe­ty mea­sures in place.

Pre­cil­la, who at­tend­ed the event, said he parked near the in­ci­dent spot where Mitchell slipped, so he saw the area first-hand. He said Il­lu­sions did as much as it could have done: in­stalling a light­ing tow­er close to the area to en­sure it was well-lit. 

He added there was warn­ing sig­nage and se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel. Based on his in­for­ma­tion from Il­lu­sions, he said se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel ad­vised Mitchell of the dan­gers of go­ing there.

“That was not along the foot­path of the en­trance or ex­it to the event venue. Where that took place, she would have left the foot­path on ex­it to head across to reach that end, so it was not along the usu­al path to ex­it the venue ei­ther, so pa­trons have to be mind­ful of their safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty when leav­ing events, as well. Do not leave every­thing up to the pro­mot­er,” Pre­cil­la said.

He said San Fer­nan­do Hill had been an event venue for many years, host­ing birth­day par­ties and play ar­eas for chil­dren, and there were nev­er in­ci­dents like these. Pre­cil­la said there are safe­ty mea­sures like sig­nage and ca­ble bar­ri­ers, but be­lieves there can be more pro­tec­tive mea­sures. He said au­thor­i­ties and pro­mot­ers could use the in­ci­dent as a les­son and, maybe, in­stall fenc­ing around the perime­ter.

The as­so­ci­a­tion wants to re­mind peo­ple to be care­ful when go­ing to and leav­ing events to man­age their and their friends’ safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty. Pre­cil­la al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to her fam­i­ly, friends and stu­dents on be­half of the TTPA, say­ing it was in­deed a trag­ic in­ci­dent.

‘Event pro­mot­ers must pri­ori­tise pub­lic safe­ty’

Cm­dr (re­tired) Garvin Heer­ah, strate­gic se­cu­ri­ty con­sul­tant and safe­ty ex­pert, said that in light of the trag­ic in­ci­dent, it was im­per­a­tive that event pro­mot­ers pri­ori­tise pub­lic safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty. Heer­ah said manda­to­ry mea­sures should in­clude thor­ough in­spec­tions and in­stal­la­tions to pre­vent such ac­ci­dents. He said im­ple­ment­ing ad­e­quate bar­ri­ers, sig­nage, and crowd-con­trol mea­sures is crit­i­cal, and event venues should ad­here strict­ly to safe­ty reg­u­la­tions.

“Fur­ther­more, or­gan­is­ers should des­ig­nate pro­hib­it­ed ar­eas clear­ly, en­sur­ing that at­ten­dees are aware of re­strict­ed zones. Ad­e­quate light­ing in all ar­eas of the event venue is es­sen­tial to en­hance vis­i­bil­i­ty and re­duce the risk of ac­ci­dents. Col­lab­o­rat­ing close­ly with rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties will help in es­tab­lish­ing com­pre­hen­sive safe­ty pro­to­cols that ad­dress these con­cerns, pro­mot­ing a se­cure en­vi­ron­ment for all pa­trons,” Heer­ah said.

There were sug­ges­tions that a he­li­copter would have aid­ed res­cuers in get­ting to Mitchell faster and get­ting her to the am­bu­lance. Heer­ah, a for­mer he­li­copter crew mem­ber, said his team air­lift­ed (winch) vic­tims and bod­ies from very dense and im­pen­e­tra­ble ter­rain, day and night, even at sea in tur­bu­lent wa­ters.

“The sit­u­a­tion last week may have been a case where an air as­set could have been con­sid­ered. How­ev­er, it is dif­fi­cult to prop­er­ly as­cer­tain be­cause I have lim­it­ed knowl­edge of the area.”