Sedi Elrington Says Family of Accident Victim Fully Compensated

Wilfred Elrington

We repeat that Lesby Hunter is adamant that she doesn’t want anything from Elrington, and just wants to make a point, on principle. But for the sake of a balanced story, we asked the Minister about it this afternoon. He says that what is being said is absolutely not true, since both insurance and government stepped in to assist the family in the wake of the incident.

Wilfred Elrington, Attorney-General

“The vehicle that hit her was fully insured, comprehensively insured by the government, so that all the expenses that were related to that incident were taken care of immediately by the insurance company. In addition to that, the Cabinet within a month of the incident approved an ex-gratia payment of ten thousand dollars which was in fact paid to the relative of the child. We had no obligation to even do that but that was done by the government of Belize. So our treatment of her was better than in fact she would have been treated anywhere else…without any contest, without going to any lawyer, the government paid her ten thousand dollars. All you have to do is check with the Financial Secretary. I can tell you that we took care of all the expenses, all the expenses in relation to the burial, and the Cabinet approved an ex-gratia payment of ten thousand dollars. All you have to do is to verify with the Financial Secretary.”

News Five tried repeated to do just that this evening, but we were told that the Financial Secretary was out of office. We’ll try again on Friday.