Port Authority Clears Water Taxi After Overload Concerns

The Belize Port Authority (BPA) says it has concluded its investigation into allegations of an overloaded water taxi over the weekend and found that no infraction had been committed. Over the weekend, a video began circulating on social media, showing several passengers standing on the boat, which reportedly just departed a water taxi terminal. The situation sparked major public concerns about passenger safety on the sea. Acting Ports Commissioner Kaylon Young told us that the BPA takes the issue of safety seriously, but a thorough investigation revealed that the standees were just trying to take shelter from the rain. 

Kaylon Young, Acting Ports Commissioner: “We did our investigation into the matter and what we found out or we realized is that the boat was not exactly as it appeared in the video. The boat was under its capacity. However, the boat is double deck and so there are some, there were some passengers on the upper deck and due to the inclement weather that that they met on the journey, the passengers from  the upper deck left and went to the lower deck. Even the passengers from at the stern of the boat went into the more forward part to be sheltered from the inclement weather.  And so because now everyone on the boat was concentrated in a smaller area there were people standing around  trying to stay out of the rain and get sheltered. And so we understand the sentiments of the passengers and we do applaud the passengers for  bringing this to the light to the authorities. And we continue to be open to these kinds of comments because of course safety is paramount for us.  And we have our officers at San Pedro terminal and at Belize City terminal  to enforce safety measures, to enforce that vessels are not overloaded. and to ensure that vessels operate in a safe manner, vessel owners operate in a safe manner.”

Young says that the BPA is currently rolling out additional marine safety measures, including demarcated areas for reduced speed and continued inspections of vessels and licensing checks for boating tour guides.