Van collides with tanker on Northern Highway

Sometime after one this afternoon the Caceres family of Belize City was heading to Altun Ha, but as their vehicle passed between miles eighteen and nineteen on the Northern Highway it made contact with a tanker that was travelling in the opposite direction. The crash caused the family’s van to run off the road, while the other vehicle lost its rear differential and also ran off the highway. The pavement was filled with debris and the van’s driver, George Caceres, was trapped behind the steering wheel. Irma Caceres says her husband’s leg is badly damaged, but she is grateful that everyone, including her children, is alive. Caceres says they had just pulled out of the gas station in Sandhill Village when the accident occurred.

Irma Caceres, Accident Victim
“When we di come, we di come straight and then we only hear a bang and when we see, my husband mash up?we can’t see nothing because the whole windshield gone up. We noh know how he control and turn, we nearly gone inna dah lady house. I noh know weh mi wah happen. But I noh remember nothing else Miss Jackie, nothing, nothing. I remember only di try get out and haul my children them out. That dah all I remember, I can’t tell you no more.”

Jacqueline Woods
“Your husband was trapped behind the steering wheel?”

Irma Caceres
“Yes. They had to cut the door. They ker ah and it look like his foot bruk, so I noh know what wah happen. We never mi di drive hard, we di come slow, but when we hear that bang, when we notice, dah we and we done turn and my husband said, mein…he only cuss and that’s all we hear. And from there we end to here, we noh know nothing else.”

Jacqueline Woods
“Were you able to talk to your husband?”

Irma Caceres
“Yes, he di talk good, but right now I noh know how he stand. I have to go right now dah hospital.”

Police are investigating and so far no one has been charged.