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14 lives lost in motorcycle accidents in 2018

Highlights14 lives lost in motorcycle accidents in 2018

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Jan. 8, 2019– According to our reports, fourteen persons lost their lives in motorcycle collisions in 2018.

The toll of deaths due to motorcycle collisions began on January 15, 2018. The first person to die in a motorcycle accident in 2018 was Francisco Polanco, 24, who died on the spot in a head-on collision with another motorcycle in Camalote on the George Price Highway. In that accident, two others were seriously hurt.

Leonits Ampie, 64, of Unitedville, Cayo District, who was one of the persons seriously injured in the accident that took Polanco’s life, became the second person to lose his life in a motorcycle collision in 2018 when he succumbed four days later, on January 19.

The third death occurred on April 3. Endhir Guerra, 46, of Orange Walk Town, lost control of his motorcycle and ran off the road at Mile 38 on the Philip Goldson Highway. The father of six children died almost immediately.

Two months later, on June 21, Maurice Palma and Alex Duncan were traveling on separate motorcycles and they crashed into a parked truck on the road, which was not lighted. They both died almost immediately.

One day later, on June 22, Roland Dyck, 18, and Franz Marten, 17, who were traveling on separate motorcycles, crashed head-on in Spanish Lookout and died almost immediately after the accident.

Twenty five days later, on July 16, Alberto Adelfonso, 23, was driving his motorcycle on the Hummingbird Highway, when he lost control of the bike and crashed into a passenger bus. He died at the spot.

On August 12, twenty days after the death of Adelfonso, Yuri Moralez, 25, was driving his motorcycle on Joseph Andrews Drive in San Ignacio in the night, when he crashed into the rear of a pickup that was parked on the roadside. He died days later due to the massive injuries he suffered.

Eight days later, on August 20, two cousins, Kairo and Henry Cob, were traveling on the Philip Goldson Highway on a motorcycle when they crashed head-on into an SUV while they were overtaking a tractor. The two cousins died at the scene of the accident.

Ninety days later, on November 20, BDF soldier Ruben Sho, 37, became the twelfth person to die in a motorcycle accident in 2018. He was traveling to Punta Gorda on the Southern Highway, from the Dump, and died when he crashed into a pickup that was approaching from the opposite direction.

Thirteen days later, on December 3, two farmers, Jose Bacab, 27, and Samuel Gonzalez, were traveling on a motorcycle when they crashed into an SUV on the Philip Goldson Highway, and died. They were the 13th and 14th persons in the country to tragically lose their lives in a motorcycle accident in 2018.

Besides these 14 deaths, several persons suffered massive life-changing injuries while traveling on motorbikes during 2018. Also, a number of motorbikes were damaged, many beyond repair. Traffic safety personnel say that speeding is the number one cause of accidents, and driving in an impaired state is also the cause of many accidents.

Hopefully, motorcyclists will be more careful in 2019, and save themselves and their families from the grief and financial loss associated with their deaths.

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