was a barricade there differed as to its construction. Some said

it consisted of pieces of lumntr lying on saw bench or

carpenter' s horse on the barge itself; others said the pieces of

lumber were nailed to the handrails of the barge.

16. We formed the impression that whatever barricades

were there, if any, were very ineffective for the purpose of

preventing pedestrians from crossing the pontoon bridge. As a

result, pedestrians continued to cross the pontoon bridge from

time to time right down to the day of the tragedy, June 14th. As

a matter of fact, one witness said that he was able to ride from his

home in Richard Sidewalk right over the pontoon bridge, without

stopping or getting off his bicycle, to his work on the north side

of the town. Other witnesses mentioned that some workers from the

Belize Sawmill made free use of the pontoon bridge to cross to and

from the north side of the City.

17. We come now to the 14th June, the day of the tragedy,

Mr. Milan, the building contractor, was not in town. Between 10:00

and 10:30 the morning, the swing bridge was opened to allow some

barges to pass through up-stream. The evidence is that one of the

barges stuck at the swing bridge, and the bridge -.s not able to swing

back into position. The crowd on both sides of the swing bridge became

impatient after waiting for about 25 or 50 minutes an-d were not able

to cross because of the obstruction which kopt the swing bridge

opened, number of people on the south side of the swing bridge

decided to walk via R-gcnt Street Ucst to tichcard Sidewalk and to

cross the river by the pontoon bridge. Others at -he swing bridge

saw these people crossing on the pontoon bridge and they in turn

decided to go to the pontoon bridge to cross. It appears that there

were no barricades or policemen at the pontoon bridge on this

occasion,

18, The workers on the pontoon bridge had instructions from the

City Council that whenever the swing bridge was opened they should

also open the pontoon bridge i.s the swing bridge had opened this

 ... morning