Dec 03, 2010

American swallowed by sidewalk!!!

Cruise Ship Passenger Falls into Sink Hole

..article from the online Mazatlan Messenger…

When San Diego resident Dary Remi disembarked from the cruiseship Oosterdam at port in Mazatlán yesterday, he did not expect to end up at the bottom of a four meter sink hole.

His tour of Mazatlán had taken him to the Cliff Diver’s plaza (Glorieta Sánchez Taboada) where a large, open sink hole had developed. Unrelenting waves had undermined the sand and earth supporting the concrete walkway causing the concrete to collapse. The Spanish language daily Noroeste had published a warning photo of the dangerous area on November 28th.

As tourist Remi walked by the sink hole, the concrete collapsed under him and he fell four meters to the bottom of the pit.

Alerted by vendors at the Glorieta of the accident, the Red Cross and Civil Protection attended and cordoned off the area to prevent any other tourists succumbing to the same fate.

It took rescuers, assisted by two cliff divers, thirty minutes to maneuver the bruised and dazed tourist up a ladder to safety, where the concerned crowd burst into applause at his rescue.

The San Diego resident was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The incident caused the national president of the Mexican Association for Attention to Cruise Ship Tourists, Rafael Rivera López, to lash out at Mazatlán’s municipal government.

Their association had publicly complained about the defects in the area of the Glorieta, and nothing had been done to repair them, he said. He went on to say he found it incredible that when they went to other ports and told officials what needed to be repaired, it was done in a month. But here in Mazatlán, they had to battle for results.

This accident, he told media, represents the lack of responsibility of authorities in charge of maintaining these popular areas, and in this case it is City Hall. It was lucky, he said, that the tourist was walking ahead of a group because if they had been together twenty more people could have been injured.

Noroeste reported that later that afternoon municipal and Jumapam workers appeared at the Glorieta to fill the hole. Permanent repair of the sink hole is expected to take one week.

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4 responses so far

4 Responses to “American swallowed by sidewalk!!!”

  1. keeping up with the news, thanks.

  2. Paolo says:

    This sounds remarkably like the article in the mazatlan messenger the other day, but without a credit.

    • contessa says:

      You are correct and I was negligent re the credit. It was my fault for rushing. I hate it when our business photos are published without credit!!

  3. […] you remember the cruise ship tourist who fell in a hole in the sidewalk in early December? His proper name is Gary Reming and he finally got out of hospital just a few […]

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