BEHIND EXCURSION DEATH OF BRITISH TOURIST IN ST MARY
— ALLEGATION OF A CATALOGUE OF FAILURES (Part 2)
OCHO RIOS, St Ann; Sept 16, 2025
A catalogue of failures and bungling has been alleged by the family of the British national who died following the crash of an ATV which he was riding as part of an excursion at Cascade, St Mary, near the border with St Ann.
They are also claiming that 64-year-old Anthony Hamilton had called out that the brakes to the all-terrain vehicle (ATV) failed, before the vehicle plunged nearly 60 metres over a cliff, killing him and injuring his wife.
This is the second article published by the North Coast Times after it became clear that some details of the initial report of a road crash involving a motorcycle were incorrect. BEHIND THE DEATH OF A BRITISH NATIONAL ON ST MARY EXCURSION
Setting the context of the excursion, which took place on August 28, 2025, the family said, “Mr. Hamilton was one of a family group of twelve on an ATV tour organized and operated by Blue Adventure Tours, Ocho Rios. Only three of the twelve had any prior experience driving ATVs. Despite this, all participants were encouraged to join without licenses or training.”
They told the North Coast Times the ATV was indeed being driven along a public roadway before it went over the cliff. They criticized the procedures and blamed brake failure for the deadly crash.
“Within minutes of starting, eyewitnesses heard Mr. Hamilton shout that ‘the brakes are not working’ before he and his wife went over a 60-metre cliff. The family believes a mechanical brake failure was the root cause of the crash, yet St. Ann’s Police failed to investigate or even recover the ATV involved.”
(ATV at the crash site)
A target of the Hamilton family’s criticism was the medical arrangements and facilities.
“Blue Adventure Tours provided no meaningful safety briefing, no medical support, and had no trained first aid personnel. Their first aid kit contained only plasters and antiseptic wipes,” the Hamiltons claimed in a release.
After several efforts to make contact with Blue Adventure Tours, a spokesman, on Monday, September 15, told the North Coast Times that the company was advised not to make any statements as the police were investigating. Their attorneys had advised them not to speak at this time, the spokesman said, expressing regret over the incident.
Specific to the medical services, the family alleged: “The failures following the accident were as shocking as the accident itself:
- The paramedics were catastrophically unprepared. The defibrillator did not work, the oxygen mask was outdated, the monitoring equipment kept falling off, and Anthony was not secured properly, falling from the stretcher multiple times. In desperation, paramedics asked family members to perform CPR.
- The ambulance took almost an hour to arrive, and when it did, it offered little to no effective care. Anthony was still alive when placed into the ambulance, but he was declared dead on arrival at St. Ann’s Bay Hospital.
Meanwhile, operators of the private ambulance service that responded, Mr Rehab Ambulance Service, based in Ocho Rios, say their new ambulance with properly trained staff arrived on the scene some 30 minutes after the distress call. Not an hour, as the Hamiltons claimed. They said they provided the professional response for which they were trained.
In our next article, we will outline what the Hamiltons claimed happened at the hospital and why the responses of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and the Police are crucial to answering critical questions in this incident.
