Police officials in the Dominican Republic have placed a local boat captain under arrest after the vessel he was operating struck and fatally injured a foreign tourist at one of the country's beaches earlier this month.
Francis Matos Samboy was at the helm of the tour boat Anabel III when it accidentally ran over a 15-year-old girl of Peruvian nationality as she was bathing at Los Muchos beach on Saona Island on Wednesday, February 1.
The accident resulted in the traumatic amputation of the victim's right upper and lower limbs and left thigh, leading to her death. Local reports stated she was already deceased by the time she was brought to a medical facility in the nearby municipality of Bayahibe.
The girl's parents told Peruvian media that they have already filed charges against the captain, whom they claim did not have a licence for operating the boat.
The victim's father added that he saw the boat sailing at high speed dangerously close to shore shortly before his daughter was struck.
Under Dominican law, the captain will be placed under preventive custody for a maximum period of three months as authorities investigate the events that led to the incident.
