On Wednesday, during the budget debate, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves took time to remember seven school children who lost their lives in the Rock Gutter tragedy.
Today (Wednesday 12 January) marks seven years since the tragic Rock Gutter accident.
Rock Gutter is located almost halfway between Fancy and Owia on the northeast of St. Vincent.
Gonsalves said the accident was one of great sadness.
“It was a day of pain and anguish, and every single year I remember them, well, I remember them on an ongoing basis when I meet members of their families.
So I want to recognize their passing and say again to the families that we continue to be with you and love you. I know it’s not an easy thing to lose a young child. I think I speak for every Vincentian in that regard”.
A mini-bus carrying twenty-one persons, eighteen of whom were students on their way to secondary schools at Georgetown, North Union, and Kingstown, careened off the road and went over a precipice into the raging sea.
Solemnly we recall first the names of the dead students and those who are missing. Their names must be forever etched in our collective memory as a fitting memorial that no grave nor time can ever extinguish.
Our young ones who are dead are:
Jamalie Edwards and his brother Jamall of the North Union Secondary School;
Racquel Ashton of the Georgetown Secondary School;
Glenroy Michael of the St. Vincent Grammar School;
Anique Alexander of the North Union Secondary School.
Our beloved who are missing are:
Chanstacia Stay of the North Union Secondary School; and
Simonique Ballantyne of the Georgetown Secondary School.
