Former BDF Captain, Charlie Good, visited Amandala today with his daughter, Samantha Good, 12, who was involved in a traffic accident yesterday evening while she, her mother and her older brother were heading home to Belama. Good’s wife, Leticia, and his son, Matthew, 16, were also injured in the traffic accident.
Captain Good was angry today. He showed us his daughter’s hand, which was bruised from what Good explains was the result of an inefficient nurse at the public hospital trying to give her drip. After he had clearly hurt her sticking the needle in her hand and then taping the needle to secure it, the needle slipped out and caused blood to spurt from Samantha’s hand. After they had secured the needle again, the bed and the floor were covered with blood.
Besides that, the Cuban nurse actually shouted at a Belizean doctor in front of him and other patients, which he believes was not professional.
Additionally, Captain Good is not pleased with the fact that police took so long to arrive at the scene, even after many calls were placed to them. An eyewitness had to take his family to the hospital. Charlie Good said that is clear that the Belize Defence Force (BDF) vehicle, which is what crashed into the rear of the pickup his family was traveling in, was at fault.
Samantha explained that she saw the accident “before it happened,” and even though she hung onto the pickup, she was thrown out of the vehicle. She landed in a drain which had water about waist high (about 3 feet). It was her brother who took her out of the drain.
According to a police report, at about 11:55 yesterday they visited an area between Miles 2 and 3 on the Northern Highway, at the highway’s junction with Chetumal Street, where there had been a traffic accident.
At the scene, Erwin Wade, 27, a BDF corporal of Price Barracks, Ladyville, reported that he was driving his Mitsubishi, license plate 22BDF76, from Belize City heading towards Ladyville. Wade claimed that there was a black pickup ahead of him, bearing license plate C-24088, and he was attempting to overtake this vehicle when it made a sudden left turn into Chetumal Street.
As a result of the driver of the pickup not indicating that he was going to turn, said Wade, his van made contact with the left side of the pickup, causing it to overturn.
Eric Neal, 27, a BDF lieutenant who was seated in the front passenger seat of the BDF vehicle, sustained a swollen ankle, said police, while Wade escaped unharmed.
Joseph Chavez, 52, who was driving the black pickup, complained of back pain, while his other passenger, Leticia Good, 26, a school warden of Trinity Methodist School, complained of pain in her right shoulder, to the back of her neck and both of her elbows.
Three persons – Samantha Good, Matthew Good, a student of Edward P. Yorke and Sharef Bilal, 24, a laborer of Mile 3, Northern Highway, were all seated in the pan of the pickup.
Samantha sustained big scrapes on both of her knees, the inner part of her feet, her elbows and on her right side. She also sustained a wound to her forehead, for which she had to get four stitches. Matthew was flung from the back of the pickup onto the road, as was Bilal, and they both sustained abrasions. Bilal also suffered an abrasion to his forehead and a cut wound to his right hand.
Police added that the pickup sustained major damage, and Captain Good explained that it was because the vehicle flipped about three times after being hit. The left front portion of the vehicle driven by Wade was damaged.
All the injured persons were treated and released from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), except for Bilal.
Good said that he intends to file an official complaint at the hospital about the way his daughter was treated by the Cuban nurse.
Police have so far not made any arrests.