An 88-year-old woman is currently being treated at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) after she suffered massive injuries when the car in which she was travelling with her daughter and son-in-law was hit head-on by a passenger bus.

The woman, Joyce Frankson, suffered four broken ribs, two fractured hands, a broken leg and a fractured pelvis. She was rushed to the Belmopan Hospital, after which she was taken to the KHMH for further treatment.

The accident occurred at about 3:30 Friday evening at Mile 41 on the George Price Highway in the area of the Beaver Dam Bridge in St. Matthews Village, during the blockage of traffic on one side of the road by the Ministry of Works, which was repairing the road.

A Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) has been issued to bus driver Ricardo Palma, who told police that when he saw the blocked traffic in his lane, he tried to stop the bus several times, and swerved to avoid ramming into the rear of about five vehicles that had been halted by the traffic officers of the road construction crew. But, says Palma, the brakes of the bus malfunctioned, and the bus kept on travelling.

Palma, who was travelling to Belize City from Belmopan, said that the brakes of the bus had not been functioning properly, and it was the first time that he had driven that particular bus. He said that he had tried to avoid hitting the car, but that there was nothing he could have done about the accident. Palma also noted that he had been travelling at 35 miles per hour.

Information to Amandala is that Frankson was in the back seat of the car in which she, along with her daughter and son-in-law, who was the driver, was traveling. When the car was hit head-on, she was hurled from the back seat into the dashboard, causing her to suffer extensive injuries. Her daughter and son-in-law suffered minor injuries and also were taken to the Belmopan Hospital, where they were treated and later released.

No one on the bus was hurt.