The Sovereign’s Day weekend was largely quiet in terms of major crimes, but one family in Belize City grieved this week after their oldest son, while carrying out an errand, was struck down and killed by a speeding vehicle.
Young Jose Garcia, Jr., 6, an Infant II student of Wesley Lower Primary School in Belize City residing in the Fabers Road area, was crossing the intersection of King Street and Amara Avenue on bicycle when a speeding green 2001 Toyota Highlander SUV, coming from Amara Avenue, hit the child, who landed on the bonnet.
The child was then flung off the bonnet, and about 50 feet down Amara Avenue, where he landed on the pavement, twice hitting his head before coming to a stop.
“Zungu”, as his friends and family called Jose, sustained severe injuries to the back of his head, legs, chest, and feet. As his father, vegetable vendor Jose Julian Garcia, Sr., told us on Tuesday morning, the back of young Jose’s head was literally “broken open” by the impact. The pink beach cruiser bicycle he was riding apparently got caught under the Highlander and was dragged up Amara Avenue. A wheel was found under a parked bus, and the seat elsewhere on the street.
Jose Garcia, Jr., the eldest of three children for Garcia and Joycelin Anacleta Castillo, died instantly on the scene and was formally pronounced dead at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City on Saturday night.
The incident took place sometime around 6:00 Saturday evening, and according to eyewitnesses, the Highlander (dealer plate 01291), driven by one Stephen Palacio, had just overtaken a Ford Explorer when it struck the child.
Palacio turned himself in to traffic police on Wednesday and faces a string of charges, including manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, driving without a valid driver’s license, driving without due care and attention, taking a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner or other lawful authority, driving an unlicensed motor vehicle, using a motor vehicle not covered by third party insurance, failure to stop and render aid, and failure to report an accident.
The deceased’s cousin, Dorian Magdaleno, had come out to join him on his route back home when he witnessed the accident. He told Amandala that he saw the Highlander strike his cousin and send him flying, then continue up the road. According to him, five persons, including at least one woman, were inside the Explorer that the Highlander had been trying to overtake.
Palacio allegedly drove away up Amara Avenue, and then turned onto Cemetery Road against the flow of traffic. Later on, he drove the Highlander into a mechanic shop further down Amara Avenue and disappeared before police could catch up to him. (Reports say the vehicle did not belong to Palacio).
On Tuesday, Fareed Ahmad, owner/manager of neighbourhood barbershop The Real Barbershop (located directly across from where Jose Jr. was hit), told assembled media houses, including Amandala, that as many as 4 speed bumps are needed on Amara Avenue to prevent an accident like Saturday’s from ever occurring again.
Ahmad alleged that the speed bump in front of Grace Primary School had been taken down several times, then re-raised.
“(There are) three schools on this street, and I don’t understand how up to now (why) we only have one speed bump in front of Grace Primary. A lot of bumps need to be put because a lot of people take this street as a freeway,” Ahmad added.
But any such remedy will be too late for the family of Jose Garcia, whose funeral will be held later this week.
Also affected was the driver of the Explorer, special constable Robin McKenzie, 21, daughter of Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb McKenzie, who was on her way to a beauty salon with her boyfriend, 9-month-old son, two female cousins, and a female friend.
McKenzie called the Monday edition of the Wake Up Belize Morning Vibes (WUB) to refute accusations that her Explorer (which is actually her mother’s) and Palacio’s Highlander were “playing chase” on Amara at the time of the accident.
Speaking with Amandala by telephone today, McKenzie said that people continue to accuse her of playing a role in the accident and charge that the Police Department is “hiding” her because of her mother’s position. (In April’s Officer of the Month ceremony at the Queen Street Police Station, mother swore in daughter during a special induction ceremony for 12 special constables).
According to McKenzie, Palacio had been trying to overtake her from in front of the Mesopotamia office of Housing Minister Michael Finnegan, area representative for that division. She said she was forced to pull aside and allow him to pass – with dire consequences for Jose Garcia, Jr.
As soon as she realized what had happened, she told us, she got into her vehicle and drove across the intersection to come to Jose’s aid. After reaching 911 and being told they were on their way, she was dissuaded from moving the body – and then attacked by an angry mob calling for her head, thinking that she was responsible.
In a personal communication forwarded to Amandala today, the young special constable admits that even she can’t fathom what “coward” would callously leave behind a victim he or she has run over.
She says that she has relived the incident over and over again since it happened, and asked herself if she should have reacted differently. She had this to say about the entire situation: “What I value more than anything is not what the public thinks of me, but what this young child’s family thinks. My sympathy goes out to them, and young Jose Garcia, Jr., will be a part (of) my life forever.”