Riviera Maya, Q.R. — The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) has handed out a fine of 120,000 peso to the Ultramar ferry company for not respecting maximum capacities established in the current epidemiological light.
The director of Cofepris in Quintana Roo, Miguel Pino, reported that Ultramar is the first company sanctioned for this reason after repeatedly exceeding the allowed quota established by the current Coronavirus health measures.
He noted the repeated offenses occurred between July and September at the Playa del Carmen-Cozumel and Cancun-Isla Mujeres ferry crossings. Investigations began after numerous social media user complaints were posted about the company not respecting healthy distance.
“Through complaints from the users themselves, we learned that the company did not respect the health protocols of healthy distance between passengers. The current rule, due to health contingency issues, clearly states that sufficient space must be left between users to limit social interaction, which they repeatedly failed to comply with,” said Pino Murillo.
Pino Murillo said that the fine was applied in mid-October after verifying that the company created the situation by overselling the allowed capacity of tickets, some days of which, the company even exceeded 100 percent of its capacity when the maximum allowed was 60 percent.
He explained that their non-compliance was verified through inspections and videos in which the overcrowding was detected after seeing some passengers being made to sit on the floor due to the excessive number of people.
Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios (Cofepris) determined that there was not only an omission on the part of the Ultramar company, but that they incurred several irregularities for selling an excessive number of tickets.
