CAYO DISTRICT–A woman and a man died tragically over the weekend in two separate traffic accidents which occurred on the George Price Highway between Friday night and early Saturday morning.
The first incident happened in Roaring Creek Village at around 9:00 p.m. on Friday, November 14, when Maria Wright, 62, a resident of Roaring Creek, was knocked down while crossing the George Price Highway, between Miles 50 and 51, near the Westar Gas Station.
Jorge Luis Romero, 41, of San Martin, Belmopan, was returning home from San Ignacio in a white 1991 Toyota Previa taxi van, when he allegedly knocked Wright down. Police said that their initial investigations have revealed that Wright had been hit while she tried to run across the highway.
She received severe head and body injuries and was pronounced dead at 10:32 p.m., after having been transported to the Western Regional Hospital.
A mere three and a half hours after Wright was hit, a second traffic fatality occurred not too far from Roaring Creek, in Cotton Tree Village, claiming the life of Selvin Reyes, 21, a Honduran. Reyes reportedly lost control of his red Toyota pickup truck while heading from the direction of St. Matthews Village to Cotton Tree.
The incident reportedly happened at around 12:30 a.m., between Miles 41 and 42 on the George Price Highway. Belmopan Police told Amandala that the vehicle flipped several times.
Reyes and his passenger, Jorge Lopez, 19, were both flung from the pickup into the nearby bushes. They were transported to the Western Regional Hospital, where Reyes succumbed to his injuries. Lopez was treated and released.
Even as police were investigating these two traffic fatalities, they were called out on Friday night to Camalote Village, Cayo, just outside Belmopan, where another traffic mishap involving Oscar Corado, a motorcyclist, had occurred. Police reported that he had collided with a SUV while riding on the George Price Highway near the Camalote Community Center.
Amandala understands that Corado had been traveling on a black motorcycle from Belmopan towards Camalote when a Ford Explorer which was coming in the opposite direction veered into his lane to stop at a shop.
Corado was not able to get out of the way in time to avoid the collision. He slammed into the side of the vehicle and received multiple body injuries, while his motorcycle was extensively damaged.
Authorities took urine specimens from Maria Barillentos, the driver of the Explorer, who has since been served with a notice of intended prosecution.
Ironically, the two traffic fatalities occurred shortly before the observance of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday, November 16.
In Belize in 2012, 69 people lost their lives due to road traffic accidents; in 2013, it was 56 people, and this year, up to the beginning of November, 46 people had died in road traffic accidents.