A runaway speedboat killed our son devastating our family
26/07/2004
May I thank you for the way my accident claim has been handled, after my accident my confidence was very low indeed but the sympathetic handling of my case restored my confidence.
John, Sheffield
by Rachel Ellis, Health Correspondent
A runaway speedboat killed our two-year-old son before our eyes when it ploughed up the beach in the Bahamas. But no one will accept the blame for destroying our family.
It was a perfect day on a beautiful Bahamas beach and the Gallagher family were revelling in the holiday of their lives. Then their world was shattered by a few seconds of unimaginable horror. Paul Gallagher was playing with his daughter Heather near the shore while his wife Andrea sat with their sons Andrew and Paul a few yards farther up the beach.
Suddenly a 200-horsepower speedboat, pulling an inflatable banana, went out of control. The driver was thrown from his seat and the boat sped past scores of swimmers before mounting the beach at full throttle. Paul threw Heather out of the way and dived for cover.
Andrea only had time to hurl herself on the sand. Without any warning from a lifeguard just 20ft away, the boat crashed into her deckchair and caught Andrew's pushchair sending it 10ft along the beach. It hit two-year-old Paul, asleep in a deckchair.
'I had so much sand in my eyes I was disoriented,' said Andrea. 'I could hear little Paul crying and
this relief came over me. I thought, "He is crying, he's OK." But when I saw him, there were towels on his head. I could see his head was split open. I was holding Paul's hand and screaming for the ambulance to arrive. I didn't know where the rest of my family was. I didn't know whether they were alive or dead.'
Paul was taken to the Doctors Hospital in Nassau, where a brain surgeon said his injuries were the worst he had ever seen. The boat's propeller had sliced through his skull and he had less than a 0.1 per cent chance of survival. Despite the odds, doctors carried out emergency surgery during which Paul had two heart attacks. He died five days later.
Andrea sang to Paul at his bedside in a vain attempt to revive him. She said: 'I had to accept that I was watching my son die and all the machines and drips weren't going to make it better. The doctors said they were not going to resuscitate him because he had suffered enough. The machine just stopped and he died in front of our eyes. At that moment, something inside me died and is dead even now. I carry that feeling inside me because that was my son. We had taken him on holiday and now he was dead. As a mother you are supposed to protect your children and the lifeguard took that away from me. The boat should have hit me. I wanted it to be me dead, not my lovely little boy.'
Two years on, the horror of that moment lives with the family daily. But what has deepened their torment is the way they have been treated in their efforts to discover the truth about the accident and to ensure no other parents suffer the same fate. Andrea and Paul, from Orpington, Kent, had saved for more than two years to afford the £10,000 for an idyllic three-week trip to the famous Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.
Boasting seven swimming pools, three lagoons teeming with exotic fish and miles of pristine beaches, the resort is owned by South African tycoon Sol Kerzner, who wants to build a Las Vegas-style casino at the Millennium Dome.
The tragedy happened on Paul's 38th birthday. Andrea, 37, who suffered serious bruising and muscle damage to her leg in the accident, said: 'The boat was out of control for 60 seconds. If I'd had a warning from the lifeguard I needed only two seconds to knock Paul's chair into the sand and he would have been alive today.'
Since Paul's death on August 20 2002, the Gallaghers have been repeatedly let down by doctors, police and the local government and have uncovered alarming evidence that leads them to believe the tragedy could have been prevented. In the days following Paul's death they had meetings with the police commissioner and the Bahamian minister for tourism, both of whom promised a full investigation. Paul said: 'Every time we came out of a meeting, we felt satisfied that we were achieving something. We put our trust in these people.'
But after the Gallaghers left the Bahamas they never heard from the authorities again. Alarm bells started ringing when a second autopsy was carried out on Paul's body in the UK. The family had been promised by the Bahamian pathologist that only an inch-long incision would be made in Paul's body to check all his organs were intact. But British doctors found all Paul's organs had been removed against his parents' wishes. Andrea said: 'It was like another knife going through my heart. They had stolen something else from me.'
The couple then discovered there was no records of the speedboat driver having a skipper's licence, and fixed seats inside the boat had been removed and replaced with cardboard boxes. Questions were also raised about the validity of the insurance held by boat owner Sea & Ski Ocean Sports. Despite promises of a proper police investigation, the family claim the boat driver and his bosses were not even questioned, and the boat was never impounded for forensic evidence.
The couple were not invited to attend the inquest into Paul's death in the Bahamas. Only after making their own inquiries did they find out when it was held. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, but the family claim vital evidence was withheld and key witnesses were not called.
At a meeting with Sol Kerzner, the tycoon told the couple the incident was 'a freaky accident' and nothing could have been done to prevent it. The family have six independent witnesses who all say no warning was given by his lifeguards.
Their travel agent, Thomas Cook, has refused to supply a copy of safety regulations Atlantis must comply with.
However, the most devastating revelation, uncovered by the Gallaghers' own investigations, was that boats owned by Sea & Ski Ocean Sports were involved in two serious accidents on paradise Island three years earlier.
In one, a 27-year-old woman drowned in a parasailing accident for which her family received a multi-million dollar payout. In the other, a young boy lost an arm after being hit by a speedboat.
Andrea said: 'When we found out there had been previous tragedies caused by the same boat company and nothing had been done, we couldn't believe it. It made me feel sick. All we want is justice and to make sure this never happens to another family.'
Paul and Andrea, who run their own recruitment company for teachers, are convinced the Bahamian authorities tried to forget Paul's death because of the bad publicity it would bring to their booming tourism industry. Paul said: 'Unfortunately the Bahamas is only interested in dollars. They have treated us like a little bit of dirt and swept us under the carpet.'
A spokeswoman for the Atlantis resort said: 'It was a terrible, freak accident. We were all devastated. We don't want to comment further.'
Yesterday, The Mail on Sunday tried to contact he Bahamian Government and chief of police but the calls went unanswered. The listed number for Sea & Ski Ocean Sports was out of service.
Leading personal injury specialists Alexander Harris are representing the family at an Inquest in the UK scheduled to take place in October.
Warren Collins who represented the family in the Bahamas and the UK explained, "When someone is killed abroad in unusual circumstances and their body is brought back into English jurisdiction a Coroner must hold an Inquest. The circumstances of Paul's death are still surrounded in mystery. The Inquest will return a verdict on his cause of death."
"This is a dreadful case which has devastated the family. They have been fighting for the truth since the accident. We hope the Inquest will help them to find out more about what happened on the day of the incident, how it could have possibly happened and what steps should be taken to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future."
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