Around 12:30 p.m. yesterday, Tuesday, Belize City Councilor for the United Democratic Party, Andrew Faber, Gianni Taylor and Virginia Azueta lost their lives in a tragic road traffic accident on the Placencia/Seine Bight Road.
It is believed that the three may have drowned after the accident, because the vehicle landed in deep water. A police release on the accident said that Faber had been driving his Mitsubishi pickup on the Placencia/Seine Bight Road heading in the direction of the Southern Highway when, “upon reaching between Miles 4 and 5, he lost control of the vehicle, causing it to overturn off the road in a ditch containing about four feet of water.”
According to speculation from police in the area, the vehicle stayed up-sided down in the pool of water for about 20 minutes before anyone had really noticed that it was there, and help was rendered; it is also speculated that the trio may have drowned in the pool of water.
A later police release said, however, that Faber, Taylor and Azueta sustained massive head and body injuries, and that they may have died on the spot. We were informed by a family friend of Taylor that she was 6 months pregnant at the time of her death. The bodies were immediately transported to the Southern Regional Hospital and a post-mortem should be conducted in Belize City during the week.
Councilor Roger Espejo told us today in a phone interview that he learned of the tragedy from Councilor Deon Leslie shortly after lunch. Espejo told us that the news was a complete shock to him, as he has been working closely with Faber since 2009 when he, Faber, was elected.
Espejo told us, “He was very kind-hearted; very personable, very jovial and overly friendly; his personal attributes was being upbeat regardless of what kind of issues we were tackling in our meetings; he was very positive about us tackling whatever challenges lay in front of us.””
Espejo also told us about Faber’s plans to leave in October 2011, to further his studies in the field of management information systems.
We asked Espejo how the mood of the other workers at City Hall was today, to which he replied, “It’s very depressing; people are in a bit of a shock; they still can’t believe it”.
Faber was a family man, as many of his colleagues and friends told us. He will be sadly missed by his family, his friends, and all of his City Hall co-workers.