Two men lost their lives in two separate road traffic accidents on Friday night. One of the accidents occurred on the George Price Highway, and the other on the Southern Highway.

The accident victims are William Lopez, 28, a resident of Esperanza, and Marcial Salam, 34, a resident and laborer of San Roman.

Around 9:00 p.m. on Friday, William Lopez was riding his bicycle on the road in Esperanza when he was knocked down from behind by a vehicle that was being driven by Imer Hernandez, a businessman of Arenal Road, in Benque Viejo Town, who was heading to Belmopan at the time.

Lopez suffered massive head and body injuries, and died on the spot.

According to police, Hernandez told them that he was blinded by the high beam of an approaching vehicle, so he drove to the side of the road, and he did not see the man who was riding his bicycle there.

After knocking down Lopez, he told police, he stopped and took the injured man to the Loma Luz Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Police detained Hernandez and served him with a Notice of Intended Prosecution for causing the death of Lopez.

About half an hour after the accident that claimed Lopez’s life, Marcial Salam of San Roman was walking on the Southern Highway between Miles 26 and 27 when he was knocked down by a vehicle that did not stop to render aid.

The driver drove away, leaving Salam on the ground. Salam suffered massive head and body injuries and also died on the spot.

According to police, they responded to a hit and-run-accident on the Southern Highway and found Salam lying on the road, dead.

He had a cut wound behind his left ear, another cut wound to the right side of the head, and his face was disfigured.

Their investigation revealed that at about 9:30 Friday night, Salam left home en route to an area by George Town High School and did not return. A passerby saw the body lying on the roadside and alerted the police.

Marcial Salam was transported to the Southern Regional Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. Police continue their investigation into this fatal accident.

A postmortem carried out on the body of Marcial Salam indicated that the cause of his death was traumatic shock due to multiple trauma which resulted from the road traffic accident. The post-mortem was conducted by Doctor Mario Estradabran at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. yesterday, Tuesday, July 15.