(Trinidad Express) State-owned Paria Fuel Trading Company should be investigated by police for the offence of manslaughter, since there is a case for criminal negligence in how it responded when four divers were sucked into the company’s undersea pipe-line, where they died.
The recommendation is contained in the 380-page report produced by King’s Counsel Jerome Lynch, who chaired the Commis-sion of Enquiry (CoE) into the Paria pipeline tragedy of February 26, 2022.
The Report stated: “We recommend to the Director of Public Prosecutions that on the evidence before this tribunal we find that there are sufficient grounds to conclude that Paria’s negligence could be characterized as gross negligence and consequently criminal. We do not conclude that the same is true of LMCS, as we are of the view they were effectively prevented from pursuing a rescue by Paria”.
The Commissioners recommended that “the DPP consider charging Paria with what is commonly known as Corporate Manslaughter”.
The Report was laid in Parliament yesterday afternoon by Minister Stuart Young, almost two months after it was handed to the President, and following sustained appeals by the families of the dead, the lone survivor, and traumatized citizens.
Young said that Cabinet had made the decision to forward the Report to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
