Baby dead in traffic mishap

Anyone who tries to navigate the streets of Belize City knows that it’s a miracle that more pedestrians and cyclists are not killed by cars, trucks and buses. But the fact is that every now and then people do die…that’s exactly what happened this morning.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

This is the bicycle nineteen-year-old Elizabeth Gushon was riding along with her son, eighteen-month-old Elvis Mayen, when the toddler apparently fell to the pavement and was run over by an eighteen-wheel tanker. Young Mayen died on the spot after being crushed by the right rear wheel. Many who witnessed the terrifying accident on Central American Boulevard said it appears that the mother had problems balancing the bike and fell as the truck passed. The truck?s driver, identified as forty-seven year old Otto Esquivel of Orange Walk Town, apparently was not aware of what had happened until he was several blocks away. Police are still trying to determine what caused Gushon to lose control of the bike, but there have been conflicting reports. According to several sources, the mother was riding between the tanker and a parked vehicle when the tanker hit the bike?s handle bar. However, the mother has told authorities that someone bumped her.

ASP Francis Williams, O.C Traffic Branch

?We gather that she definitely lost control, but what really caused her to lose control of the bicycle causing the child to fall from the carrier beneath the right rear wheel of the truck, we cannot establish that quite yet because the mother is in severe shock and we are unable to communicate properly with her. She is not giving as much information at this time.?

What the police have been able to establish is that at the time of the accident baby Mayen was in this black carrier attached to the front of the bicycle; a device not design to transport children.

ASP Francis Williams

?No, Jackie, this kind of carrier is not recommended to carry a child on the bike handle. It gives the rider not a hundred percent in control of the bicycle at the time because it is fixed to the handle bar. It is recommended that they have the proper seating chair for the child behind the rider who is pedalling the bicycle.?

This morning?s fatal traffic accident highlights another problem that has become a common practise in Belize City. Children being transported on the handlebars, middle bars and even on the laps of people riding bicycles.

ASP Francis Williams

?Well, from every time we have been working towards advising bicycle riders to discontinue this practice. The Police Department along with Traffic Officers around the nation is working at this. Bicycle riders must always remember that when they are travelling with their kids, they must be properly seated in the carrier that is designed to carry the child and that is fixed to the back of the bicycle and not on the handle bars.?

Baby Mayen will be laid to rest over the weekend.