Survivor of boating accident off Staten Island 'overwhelmed with guilt,' family says
SOUTH RICHMOND HILL, Queens (WABC) -- The family of one of two survivors of a deadly boating tragedy in the Ambrose Channel is speaking out as the man recovers at home, and mourns the close friend he lost.
Sewchand Maniram, 62, is one of only two survivors pulled from a boat that capsized off Staten Island over the weekend.
Rescue crews surrounded the roughly 30-foot Grady White, which flipped upside down in the open water about five miles southeast of Breezy Point.
Six men left Howard Beach Sunday morning, setting out to test the brand-new vessel, but just after noon, something went wrong.
Eyewitness News spoke with Maniram's daughter Asha by phone.
She said her dad called her from the hospital at 7 p.m. on Sunday evening.
"He sounded calm, but you could tell there was something else in the tone of his voice that I wasn't quite sure what it was," Asha Maniram said.
The boat had capsized.
Javier Adames, Francis Marmolos and a third man did not make it out alive. Vernon Glasford, who has been missing since Sunday, is also now presumed dead.
The other survivor, Enrique Diaz, is in stable condition in the hospital.
"He said it all happened so fast," Asha Maniram said. "He said he did take his clothes off, he took his boots off because it started weighing him down and survival kicked in."
The married father of two is overwhelmed with a tremendous amount of guilt.
"He said, 'you know, I couldn't help them because hypothermia set in.' He said 'I couldn't feel my fingers, couldn't feel my toes,' he was freezing," Asha Maniram said.
Back at the slip, boats belonging to two of the men who didn't make it, sit in the water.
"My dad's OK, but I'm traumatized that the rest of the families are feeling something different than I am," Asha Maniram said.
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