Two 17-year-olds drown on Sunday

Two families are mourning the deaths of their young relatives, both of whom drowned in separate incidents this weekend.

Seventeen-year-old schoolboy Sylvester Ashton, a Form Five student of the Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School, drowned at Maracas Bay on Sunday afternoon. His sister Heide Hanibal said that her brother left home with his brother Andrew and cousin Daniel to drop off building material at his father’s Maracas home. Reports revealed that around 4 pm, the three decided to take a swim at Maracas Bay where Ashton ran into difficulties. Though his cousin Daniel made frantic efforts to save the drowning teenager and alerted lifeguards, by the time they went to the assistance of Ashton, he had already disappeared beneath the surface. Lifeguards carried out searches but the body was not found. Almost 45 minutes later, the body was seen floating close to where Ashton drowned and his body was fished out by the lifeguards. According to Hanibal, a doctor who was at the beach carried out a check on the body and discovered that her brother still had a weak pulse. She claimed that the doctor was allegedly told that he had no authority to carry out a check on the body, and was told to await the arrival of a district medical officer but she feels that if they had allowed the doctor to render assistance, her brother’s life could have been saved.

An autospy carried out yesterday revealed that Ashton died from drowning. Cpl David of the Maracas Bay Police Station is investigating and Newsday learned that senior lifeguards have launched an investigation into the matter. In an another incident, a family fishing lime in Manzanilla that same day turned tragic when one of the younger members drowned after being knocked over by strong waves. Mark Williams, also 17, could not swim and climbed onto his uncle’s back to try to escape from strong underwater currents which were pulling him into deeper waters. The waves, however, proved too powerful and Williams lost his grip and was pulled under the sea by the currents.  By late afternoon yesterday, his body has not yet resurfaced. Relatives have joined with authorities in searching for the teen’s body. Williams, a pupil of the Curepe TML Secondary School, left his home at Maharaj Street, El Socorro, San Juan, with nine other relatives for the Mitan Bridge in Manzanilla. By afternoon, lifeguards had started combing the waters, but they said the rip tides could have pulled the boy’s body for miles out to sea. Investigations are continuing.