Car slams against and breaks guard rail, then lands in boat

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Oct. 29, 2018– At about 4:20 this evening, a car rolled over the sidewalk, crashed into and broke a guard rail, and landed on a boat owned by Colly Bainton, 74, a fisherman of Belize City, who, along with others, was sitting in his boat that was in the water, moored near the sidewalk at the Vernon Street Fish Market.

As a result, the front wheel of the car rested on the leg of a man who was sitting in the boat. He and another friend jumped into the river as an immediate reaction to escape from the car, and as a result, the man suffered minor injuries.

A bystander who was buying fish at the time from another fisherman, however, suffered a large cut on his right hand. Bainton said that his friend who was in the boat with him was taken to the hospital.

On our arrival, we saw the car being pushed back out of the boat and onto the sidewalk by some men.

The driver told us that she drove up slowly to park her car, where she usually parks it by the sidewalk, when she was distracted by someone who called her, and she mistakenly pushed the gas instead of the brakes, and the car lurched forward.

The driver said that if the boat was not there, she perhaps would have died, because the car would have gone into the water, which is deep in that area, and the river bed is muddy. She said that it happened quickly, and that it was a freak accident.

Bainton said that the ambulance was called, and BERT technicians examined and released him.

People in the area told us that it could have been worse, because they usually sit on top of the guard rail on the sidewalk in front of Bainton’s boat, and that it was their favorite spot. However they are thankful that the guard rail stopped the forward motion of the car, and that no one was killed.

Police have begun investigating the incident.