– in boat collision on Cuyuni River
A nine-month-old baby was killed, while her mother is listed to be in a critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital last night, following a boat collision in the Cuyuni River earlier in the day.
The baby’s father and two other passengers were injured when the small boat they were travelling in reportedly came into the path of another boat in the relatively remote Cuyuni River yesterday morning.
The name of the dead infant, a girl, is said to be Sarah Simmonds. Her mother, Nandanie Singh, 32, who was rescued and taken first to the Bartica Hospital from where she was transferred to Georgetown, was up to press time last night said to be conscious but still critically injured.
Her husband, George Simmonds, 34, was said to be slightly injured, as were three other passengers who were in the boat with them at the time of the collision.
The boat the group were travelling in, ‘Rebecca’, overturned in the murky waters of the Cuyuni River following the collision, and the passengers were rescued by another boat.
The police, in a statement last night, confirmed that investigations are being conducted into an incident that occurred at about 10:00 hrs yesterday, in the vicinity of Matub Back Channel, Cuyuni River, where two boats collided resulting in the death of nine-month-old Sarah Simmonds.

According to the police, investigations so far revealed that Sarah was in the company of her mother Nadia Singh, 32 years, and father George Simmonds, 34 years of Bartica, travelling in a boat from Aranka to Bartica, along with the captain and three other persons, when the boat collided with another vessel.

As a result of the collision, Sarah Simmonds, Nadia Singh and George Simmonds received injuries. Sarah Simmonds was pronounced ‘dead on arrival’ (DOA) at the Bartica Hospital, while Nadia Singh, accompanied by her husband, was admitted to the GPHC.
The two boat captains are in police custody assisting with the investigations.