Last week Thursday three persons lost their lives in a horrific traffic accident on the Northern Highway. Two of them were buried on Saturday. But the killer road resumed its deadly ways on Sunday when another fatal accident occurred about nine miles east of Thursday’s history making accident. Another vehicle suffered a blowout of one of its tires and the result was similarly catastrophic—four members of the Acosta family from Cristo Rey, a village in the Corozal District, died when the vehicle that they were travelling in overturned. Five were hospitalized in various conditions.
The Acostas were heading for Belmopan from their home in Cristo Rey in a red and grey late model Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck, when one of its tires suffered a blowout between Mile 41 and 42.
This afternoon, the officer commanding Orange Walk Police formation, Superintendent Joseph Myvett, told the media that about ten minutes before the accident, the driver was checked by a highway patrol and everything appeared normal.
Myvett said that he could not say if speeding was a factor in the accident. He said that that is left to be determined by the investigation. But he cautioned that: “During these times the highway is very hot and I want to advise drivers to certainly examine their tires whilst travelling and also to travel within the speed limit.”
Those killed in the accident are: the driver of the vehicle, Jose Acosta, his sisters Maria and Victoria, while Fania Acosta, a third sister died while on the way to the Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk Town. Other family members remain hospitalized, including two teenagers and two minors.
One eyewitness who spoke to Amandala on condition of anonymity described what he saw from a distance. “We noticed a vehicle swerve on the side of the road going to the right and when the vehicle swerved on the right we saw the vehicle pull in again but we didn’t know what went on. I am telling you we saw it from a distance. When we got to the scene we saw a Mitsubishi L200, red and silver, parked in the middle of the road, which had overturned several times on the middle of the highway.”
“The driver was already dead, he had a cranial damage to his left side of his lobe and then we also realized that we had several bodies spread on a large area of the highway. So after we arrived, we tried to assist anyway we could to all the persons that got hurt.”
Alfredo Acosta, a brother of the victims, told Amandala that his family is planning to have one funeral for his brother and sisters. When asked how his mother is coping with the loss of four of her children, Alfredo told us that his mother is a very strong Christian woman.
All of the Acostas who died were teachers. Today, the San Pedro Government School was flying its flag at half mast in remembrance of Victoria Acosta, who taught there for a number of years.