No Official Assistance for Benque Accident Victim

On August sixteenth, Benque resident Yanie Cu was driving Yolanda Valencia to the market in San Ignacio when they collided into a vehicle driven by Deputy Commission of Police Miguel Segura. Valencia, a market vendor, died on the spot, and Cu was badly injured. Segura was not hurt. He later tested above the approved limit for alcohol, was charged in court and is out on bail. Today, twenty-eight year old Yanie Cu is still trapped in that nightmare, every minute of his life. The young man took surgery in Guatemala but was forced to return when funds ran out. In that one split second that Saturday morning on a lonely stretch of road, his life changed forever. Mike Rudon was in Benque Viejo this morning and has that story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

Twenty-eight year old Yanie Cu cannot walk because his hip was crushed in the accident. His arm was badly broken and now held together by metal pins. He exists in a world of excruciating pain, his body wracked by tremors. This is the new life of a once vibrant father of two, the breadwinner of his family. His old life ended at just past five am on Saturday, August sixteenth, 2014.

Yanie Cu, Accident Victim

Yanie Cu

“She just screamed and I couldn’t do anything. She died and I saw when she died and she didn’t have time to say anything, I felt like I was drowning. I wanted to get our…but no one wanted to help me get out either. I was shouting for them to take me out. I saw my hand was broken and I became frightened. I made my way out and when I got out, I felt my chest crack. I felt as if my chest was out of place. So I thought that it was broken. But thank god that it wasn’t broken. I saw some men who knew me and I shouted for them to take me out.”

He was in the K.H.M.H. for fifteen days, but his family saw that he wasn’t getting any better, and it seemed that doctors could do nothing more for him there. So they took him to Guatemala.

Minelia Chan, Aunt of Yanie Cu

“He was about fifteen days there and they don’t treat him nothing. And then all the family talked with Yanie’s mom and told them to take him to Guatemala because if he stayed here he would die here because they are not treating him good, so all the family they raised money for him, make barbeque sale, bake everything…the good people from Succotz.”

Minelia Chan

Yanie Cu

“Here in Belize, they just gave me some things to hang my foot. That injured my foot more, according to the doctor. I didn’t need them. They cut my foot and took out the pieces of bone…and they tried to fix it but he said that it would not remain normal. I had to go to the capital. They took me to Guatemala where they operated on me. They operated on me the same night and I felt better. But he said that fifty percent of my leg would function. The bone in my leg started to die because it was out of my leg for so long. They treated me well over there. I can’t complain about anything. And I thank all the people that helped me in Succotz, in Benque. I am grateful to them because they really helped me.”

Segura was driving an official government vehicle when the accident occurred. But since August sixteenth, nobody has visited the family to offer any assistance, or even an apology. So they have had to bury their pride and beg for assistance in the hope that Yanie can walk again.

Yanie Cu

“No one has called me. No one has said if they will help me or not. I would like them to at least help me. All I want is for my hand to heal. I am in a lot of pain. That is all I am asking.”

Minelia Chan

“We have shame but we are asking to the good people and the good people are giving us to buy the medicine, to buy whatever he needs…the people from Succotz, from Benque, the taxi-drivers, all of them are helping Yanie, yes.”

It has been heartbreaking for Yanie’s family and friends, who have gathered by his bedside since he returned to Belize on Sunday. Now they have to sit silently by as he suffers.

Yanie Cu

“My life changed since all this happened to me. What more can I say? That morning I was calm. I had my head straight. He was the one coming… I don’t know how he was coming. The thing is that he swerved into me… I don’t know if he was drunk. I don’t know. I don’t know in what state of mind he was in…and what he was doing on the road.”

Minelia Chan

“I tell him to pray. I know that God will help him to walk again.”

Yanie Cu

“Well I think so. I think I will be back to normal; that I will walk again; maybe next year, if God’s willing. God is the only one that gives us strength.”

Yanie will have to suffer this terrible pain for at least the next six months. One pack of the painkillers he needs costs one hundred and twelve dollars. Mike Rudon for News Five.