Vasquez was driving delivery truck that knocked down and killed James Gongora

Ernesto Vasquez, 25, a delivery truck driver from Orange Walk, was charged with manslaughter by negligence, driving without due care and attention and causing death by careless conduct after he knocked down and killed James Gongora, 47, between Miles 17 and 16 on the George Price Highway late Monday evening.

According to police, when they questioned Vasquez at 6:55 Monday evening, he told them that he had been driving an Isuzu delivery truck on the George Price Highway from Belmopan that evening, when upon reaching between Miles 17 and 16, he was momentarily blinded by the high beams of an oncoming vehicle.

Vasquez said that it was during that moment of blindness that he knocked James Gongora off his bicycle. Gongora was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for immediate attention, but succumbed to his injuries later that night.

Vasquez was not represented in court and when the charges were read to him he pleaded not guilty. No pleas were taken from him because the offenses are indictable and will be heard in the Supreme Court. He was offered and met bail of $7,000 and is scheduled to return to court on January 13, 2014.