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1 dead in horrific 3-vehicle highway accident

Headline1 dead in horrific 3-vehicle highway accident

MILE 31-32, George Price Highway, Mon. May 7, 2018– There was a terrible accident between Mile 31 and 32 on the George Price Highway around 10:00 a.m. today involving two pickup trucks that were traveling toward Belize City and a BATSUB (British Army Training Support Unit Belize) four-ton truck that was heading in the opposite direction.

One eyewitness who was traveling on a motorcycle, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the BATSUB vehicle was traveling in a convoy with about 5 other trucks.

The eyewitness, a resident of Roaring Creek, who reported the accident to the police, said the convoy was moving at a fast pace, and the truck that was involved in the accident was the fourth vehicle in line, and was behind the BATSUB convoy.

Due to the speed at which the convoy was traveling, said the witness, apparently, when the driver approached the curve, he lost control of the truck and it careened into the opposite lane, hitting a Ford F-150 pickup truck which was being driven by Miguel Ayala, 58.

The impact was too much for Ayala, who died on the spot, leaving the highway littered with chunks of his smashed vehicle and half of the already butchered pigs that he was transporting to a meat market in Belize City.

The driver of another pickup truck, a Mazda, also lost control and his vehicle flipped and landed on its side off the highway.

The BATSUB truck, which was pulling a water bowser, ran off the road and across a deep drain, where it finally came to a stop. The eyewitness said it may have been the water bowser that caused the driver to lose control.

The driver of the Mazda was able to walk out of the accident unhurt. He refused to grant reporters on the scene an interview. In a thick Arabic accent, he said, “I don’t give interviews,” as he walked the length of the skid marks left on the road by the BATSUB truck, which was off the road in the bushes.

A BATSUB ambulance arrived on the scene a little more than an hour after the accident, but no one was taken onboard. Another ambulance from Belmopan was also observed on the scene, but when it was leaving, there was no howling siren, which suggested that it did not have anyone on board who was injured from the accident.

One of Ayala’s younger brothers, Pastor Ayala, who went to the scene of the accident, said he does not know if the other vehicle (the Mazda pickup truck) also hit his brother’s vehicle.

Ayala said his brother has been working for about 30 years as a handyman for someone named Edgar Puga. “He never changed jobs from the time he started,” Ayala said.

Miguel Ayala was a resident of Belmopan and was the father of six children.

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