Photo: Top row (l-r) Delwin Armstrong, Sherwin Garbutt
Bottom row (l-r) Timothy Neal and Edwin Brown, deceased
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Nov. 27, 2023
Over the weekend, several road traffic accidents occurred across the country, but the incident that received the most media attention and that resulted in the largest loss of lives was an accident on the Hummingbird Highway which claimed the lives of four men from western Belize. The deceased were identified as Delwin Armstrong, 51, also known as “Pampe”; Sherwin Garbutt, 43, also known as “Stuck”; Timothy Neal, 44; and Edwin Brown, 43, all of Roaring Creek Village, Cayo District.
Survivors of the accident were Elias Orellano, 35; Darren Gilharry, 50; Gilbert Myers, 34; and Johnny Sedacey, 30, also from Roaring Creek, who suffered various non-life-threatening injuries.
A minor, Nabil Reyes, is listed as being in critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Initial reports indicated that on Saturday, November 25, a group of nine persons were traveling in a pickup truck from Dangriga Town en route to their home in Roaring Creek.
It has been reported that Garbutt, who was behind the wheel, allegedly lost control of the Chevy Silverado pickup truck around 8:30 p.m. at Mile 28 on the Hummingbird Highway near St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park, and the truck then flipped multiple times, which caused its passengers to be flung onto the pavement.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander of the Belize Police Department’s Eastern Division, confirmed to local reporters that several of Garbutt’s passengers were seated in the pan of the truck when the incident occurred. He also confirmed that the passengers inside the truck were wearing their respective seatbelts.
Gilharry, who was struck unconscious for a while, emotionally recounted the events after he woke up and saw the scene,
“When I come outta di vehicle, I hear one ah my fren seh ih foot bruk. I conscious dat only my hand feel hurt. He got wa foot hook up. I release ih foot from off ah di vehicle seat belt weh ih hook up pan. I tek ahn down and ih seh dat ih foot bruk; and when I look I see di guys dem spread out,” he said.
Jean Gordon, mother of the now-deceased Brown, expressed her disbelief at the time of the accident.
“Even after I went to see him at the morgue I still didn’t believe [it]. Edwin is my only son, and everybody says he’s my king, that I got him spoiled, because he got people in the States and they take care of him well … I never knew my son was loved by so many people. Everybody reached out. Everybody cried for my son,” she said emotionally.
Gordon described her son as someone who was non-violent and non-confrontational.
ACP Romero noted that it is yet undetermined whether speeding was involved or whether Garbutt was under the influence of any substance at the time.