Apart from the fatal accident on the Boom Road, there was a vehicle pile-up, a motorcycle accident and another vehicle overturned

The extended weekend was buzzing with an array of activities which took place mainly in the Belize River Valley area where the 16th Annual Belikin La Ruta Maya canoe race was passing. However, the celebrations probably also created the conditions for both major and minor traffic accidents which either endangered or claimed the lives of several persons.

Authorities who were working in the Burrell Boom area on Sunday had their hands full as they responded to multiple traffic accidents – two of which occurred almost simultaneously within their jurisdiction.

A few moments before a small child and a young man perished in a fatal traffic accident on the Boom Road, there was a 4-car pile-up along that same stretch of road, and according to ASP Chris Noble, O.C. Belize Rural Formation, the officers had to prioritize the accident in which there were lives at risk.

He told us that police, nonetheless, are appealing to witnesses of the pileup or those who were involved to provide the investigators with an official statement so that an investigation can proceed into the cause of the accident.

Noble stated: “We did have information, and I did go past an accident where apparently one driver may have bumped into another one [who then] bumped into another vehicle. It caused a chain reaction of, I think, four vehicles. We are asking the persons [with information] to come forward because that was simultaneous to the fatality and we took priority at [the scene of] the fatalities. It was not because we wanted to leave them out there, but lives were at risk [in the other accident] and we had to deal with that. We’re just asking that they now come forward so we could establish what was the cause of the pile-up.”

The Rural Executive Officer also informed us about another incident in Burrell Boom which involved a motorcyclist, which was added to a list of at least 15 traffic accidents since the beginning of the year.

“We do have another incident in Burrell Boom where a motorcycle rider may have either fallen off his motorcycle or hit somebody and fell off his motorcycle. The police officers in that area have identified who that person is, and we’ll be getting the statement and see how best we can work it out”, explained Noble.

Unfortunately, those incidents would not be the only ones within the Rural Executive Officer’s jurisdiction. He declared, “There was another incident in Bermudian Landing on Saturday night, [whereby] 4 females and 2 kids were traveling in a vehicle and the vehicle overturned about a hundred feet from the [Bermudian Landing] police station.”

ASP Noble said that he is of the opinion that at some point, the accidents could all, to some degree, be attributed to a certain level of negligence on the part of the drivers.

Though none of these incidents proved fatal, approximately 11 persons have lost their lives in at least 15 traffic accidents which have been recorded since the start of this year.