Injured passengers airlifted to Miami

Sixteen cruise passengers on a shore excursion on the Caribbean island of Dominica were taken to hospital when their tour vehicle crashed yesterday.
Fourteen of the most seriously injured have been airlifted to hospital in Miami after treatment at the island’s Princess Margaret hospital. Six are listed in “critical” condition, two are “serious,” and six are “fair”.
The passengers, from the Celebrity Summit, were taking part in a Caribbean Cooking Adventure shore excursion, in which they joined local experts to learn how to prepare traditional dishes.
The three-and-a-half hour trip was scheduled to conclude with a scenic drive back to the capital, Roseau, before returning to the ship.
The passengers sustained injuries including broken bones, bumps, bruises and lacerations when the vehicle’s brakes failed and it crashed into a ditch.
Members of Celebrity Cruises’ guest care team flew to Dominica to escort the most seriously injured and their travelling companions on the air ambulance.
I know from experience that the roads on the island are tortuous narrow lanes twisting and turning through steep sided valleys, and subject to landslides and subsidence.
Local media attention is focusing on the inadequacy of the tour vehicle, an ageing Bedford truck adapted into an open-sided tour bus with simple bench seating.
One former resident said on the Dominica News Online website:
“When I was a young boy I know these old Bedford trucks were used to go in the garden for bananas to sell to Geest, and to go to Roseau to carry sugar, rice and flour for shopkeepers. I never know dem old trucks are used to transport tourists. Wake up Dominicans.