BELIZE CITY- Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Miguel Segura, who has been charged with manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention, driving with alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit, negligent grievous harm and failing to alter direction to give way, was brought back to the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court today, where his trial was adjourned until November 10, when he is to be returned to court.
Segura was released on bail of $6,000.
Police have stated that a blood alcohol level test confirmed that Deputy Commissioner Segura had more than the legal limit of alcohol in him at the time he was involved in a road traffic accident in which a Succotz woman was killed on the spot and her driver seriously injured. The test was conducted at the National Forensic Services in Ladyville on blood samples taken from DCP Segura on Saturday, August 16, and confirmed that the alcohol content in his blood was above the legal limit, which is 70/100.
Police reports are that about 5:42 a.m. on Saturday morning, August 16, DCP Segura was driving his Government-issued grey Nissan Pathfinder to Benque Viejo del Carmen from San Ignacio, and on his arrival at Mile 71, on the outskirts of Succotz, on the George Price Highway, he collided head-on with a Toyota Corolla car that was travelling in the opposite direction.
The car was being driven at the time by Yanie Evan Cu, 27, a taxi driver of the Kontiki area of San Ignacio Town, and his passenger, Yolanda Consuelo Valencia, 54, of Succotz, was seated in the front passenger seat.
As a result of the impact of the collision, Cu sustained head and body injuries and was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was declared to be in a critical but stable condition, while Yolanda Consuelo Valencia sustained massive head and body injuries and died on the spot. She was taken to the San Ignacio Community Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival, while DCP Segura complained of pain in the chest.
DCP Segura was arrested and charged for the offences and on Tuesday, August 19, he was taken to the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court, where he was offered bail, which he met.
Earlier in the day, Tuesday, August 19, before he was taken to court, the road was blocked and traffic was halted, as an angry crowd of residents of Succotz and Benque demonstrated their anger because they did not think that DCP Segura had been properly charged, as he allegedly had been taken illegally from the scene of the accident.
The crowd had demanded that DCP Segura be arrested immediately and be treated as any other citizen who was drunk behind the wheels of a vehicle that killed someone would have been treated.