A memorial service was scheduled to be held today at 4:00 p.m. at the Old Belize Cultural and Historical Center (Mile 5 Western Highway) for David Courtenay, 45, a businessman of a Buttonwood Bay address who died and was burned to bones after the vehicle he was driving collided with a utility post on the Western Highway. The vehicle caught fire and later exploded, said police. David Courtenay was alone in the vehicle.
According to a police report, sometime around 5:10 on Friday morning, May 4, they responded to reports of a traffic accident on the Western Highway between Miles 20 and 21. There they saw a Toyota Land Cruiser totally engulfed in flames.
Police said that they observed a lone passenger in the vehicle, burnt to death. As a matter of fact, police said, the deceased was burned to the extent that he could not be identified. The Land Cruiser later was confirmed to be registered to CAD Construction, which is owned by David Courtenay, said police.
To identify Courtenay, police had to enlist the aid of an orthodontist, who identified him from his dental records.
A police spokesperson told Amandala that Courtenay did not appear to have been trapped in his seat. They believe that he may have been unconscious when the fire began.
Amandala today spoke with an eyewitness in the area who said that he ran to his window after hearing the collision. He saw that the vehicle caught fire almost immediately. He ran downstairs for his vehicle, prepared to move quickly if he had to rush anyone to the hospital. By the time he got there, someone in a vehicle had already stopped at the scene. The two onlookers could do nothing but watch the burning vehicle.
He figured that the driver was still inside, but he heard no screams. The utility post that the vehicle hit was broken into three pieces, cutting off the area’s electricity for about a half day, said the eyewitness.
The following day, Saturday, May 5, at about 2:00 p.m., police were called to the same area on the Western Highway between Miles 20 and 21, where they observed another traffic accident. This one claimed the life of cyclist Leroy Trapp, and injured his sideman. Trapp was driving a cement truck at the time.
David Courtenay’s parents, Vernon Harrison and Audrey Courtenay, lost a young man son, Andrew, in the early 1980s when television first came to Belize. Andrew Courtenay was trying to install a television antenna when the antenna came into contact with high tension overhead electricity wires and electrocuted him.
The late David Courtenay was the vice-chairman of the board of the Development Finance Corporation during a controversial period in the DFC’s history which became the subject of a commission of inquiry. Earlier this year, with the benefit of legal counsel from his attorney uncle, Derek Courtenay, David Courtenay testified before the DFC Commission of Inquiry, which had been reduced to two members – Merlene Bailey-Martinez and Herbert Lord, following the death of Commission chairman David Price.