Splashmins suspends lifeguard service
Friends and relatives of Ronaldo Gomes picketing in front of the Ashmins store on High
Friends and relatives of Ronaldo Gomes picketing in front of the Ashmins store on High

By Leroy Smith

PROPRIETOR of the Splashmins Fun Park, Lennox John on Monday said that with immediate effect, the resort will be pulling its lifeguard service which it has been providing to patrons over the years.

According to John, the decision was taken following the recent death of a teenager at the resort. The young man drowned, according to a postmortem report.

John, when contacted by the Guyana Chronicle on the claims that his resort offered poor supervision for persons using the waterways inside the facility, explained that given the many claims that his staff were responsible for the death of the young man, management has taken a decision to stop providing life guards. He used the argument that the waterways which persons swim in when they visit his facility are the government’s waterways and as such he has no obligation to supervise the persons using it.

John said that he will not be given a basket to fetch water and indicated that signs would be erected alerting patrons that they will be “swimming at their own risk.” Two Sundays ago, a young man, Ronaldo Gomes who visited the resort with his family went missing and a search for him found that his body was floating beyond the caution rope at the facility. He was first discovered missing later that afternoon and it was late in the night that his body was discovered.

Another section of the picketers in front of Ashmins

When Ronaldo Gomes’ body was recovered under the supervision of the police, it was found that his face was badly disfigured. This prompted residents to suggest that he might have been hit by a passing boat which was traversing the water at the time. John however indicated that when the records at the facility were checked, it proved that between the period that the young man was reported missing and or last seen to the time his body was recovered, no boat was using the water in the area. The question then began to surface if it could have been fishes that ate away at his face at such a fast rate.

When asked why he nor a member of his company visited Ronaldo Gomes’ family, John responded that a conscious decision was made not to visit the relatives or engage them as they had already concluded that it was the resort that was responsible for the death of the teenager and added to that they had also suggested that some sort of rituals were being done each year to claim the lives of persons who visit the resort. The proprietor said that in those circumstances he refused and will continue to refuse meeting with the relatives of Ronaldo Gomes as he does not want to be seen as attempting to bribe, or silence a situation. “Whatever will be, will be” he added.

On Monday relatives of a man who drowned at the facility some 16 years ago were part of a group of friends of Gomes who protested the Ashmins Store on High Street and who later marched to the Hadfield Street Office of Splashmins where they called for the closing down of the facility on the Soesdyke Linden Highway and for an investigation to be launched.
Police sources have indicated that the postmortem for the dead teenager are consistent with drowning. However a boat captain who has been working with the company for close to 16 years was arrested by the police and the engine of the boat he was using on the day in question was confiscated by the police as they seek to carry out some tests and investigations. The Splashmins Fun Park has been in existence for close to twenty years now. John said that outside of the death of the teenager two weeks ago, no death has occurred at the facility for the past eight years.

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