One year after big crash, roads are safer

It happened exactly a year ago, and while that hardly qualifies the event as hot copy, the significance of the massive traffic accident is as fresh as any late breaking news story. Especially significant is that unlike many Belizean tragedies, it appears that this one has galvanized the nation into a collective change in behaviour. I began my research by travelling west…just as I did on this date in 2003.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting

The graphic message on the billboard at mile twenty-eight on the Western Highway pales in comparison to January twentieth 2003 when mangled metal and broken bodies dominated the scenery.

It had been a head-on collision between a KIA utility truck, carrying thirteen construction workers, and a Geo Tracker with two Ukrainian-American tourists. Three lay dead at the site and in the hours that followed, a dramatic humanitarian effort was launched to save the other twelve lives.

In the end, six people would lose their lives: four construction workers and the two tourists, and the other nine would begin their slow recovery from serious head, body, and psychological injuries.

Twenty-year-old Kareem Griffith was the driver of the KIA truck. Today, his father, David Griffith, describes his family’s new reality.

David Griffith, Father of Accident Victim

“I wouldn’t say mourning, but we still can’t forget it. He was the oldest child of the family. The brothers and sisters still can’t get over it; they still feel like he’ll be back some day. His brother David is always asking for him.”

“I myself have to be on the road, passing that accident site sometimes two times for the day, seven days a week, back and forth and it really touch me every time I pass there. My wife well, she being at home, she feels the worse of it just sitting down home and just thinking about it.”

The gruesome scenes of the mile twenty-eight accident horrified the nation and many traumatized Belizeans swore off the bad driving habits. But a year later, has anything really changed?

According to Commissioner of Transport Phillip Brackett, in May of last year, the department launched several initiatives to promote safe driving.

Phillip Brackett, Commissioner of Transport

“We feel that certainly the nation has to be continually and constantly reminded of the dangers of dangerous driving, the dangers of drinking and driving, and other violations which ultimately results in accidents and fatalities and serious injuries and that sort of thing. So public awareness has been one of the focus of our campaign.”

Public awareness has included television, radio, and billboard safety campaigns, side reflectors, speed limit signs, cat eyes and the repaving of sections of major highways, like the area between mile nineteen and twenty on the Western Highway where accidents frequently occur.

Brackett believes the joint efforts of the Transport Department, the private sector, the Ministry of Works, and the Police Department will make a positive impact. But while improvements to infrastructure are ongoing, authorities have also had to resort to the use of tickets and more recently, hi-tech equipment like radar guns.

Phillip Brackett

“It will take a while and perhaps it will never be enough to do what ideally what we would want to do, but certainly the use of the radar gun, currently we only have two and it’s being used by the police. We do hope to acquire some more in the next financial budget, but it will not have the sort of impact that we would want to have initially. Because we don’t have the manpower, vehicles et cetera, are not as many as we would want them to be. So certainly the improvements will be gradual, but we are certain that there will be improvements because we are doing things that were never done before.”

In 2003, traffic accidents on Belize’s highways claimed sixty-six lives, a decrease from 2002, which saw seventy-seven fatalities. While officials believe seatbelt use is on the increase, reckless driving and drunk driving are as prevalent as ever and are still costing lives. It’s situation victims’ families like the Griffiths are urging drivers to consider when they get behind the wheel.

David Griffith

“Myself, personally, I used to be a hard driver and I slow down a lot since then. I see what it has caused to my life. I slow down a lot and everyday I talk to other people about it: slow down on the road, drive safely. This morning I came here, some of my other co-workers went to the north and I remind them what happened one year ago, so take your time on the road, no need to rush.”

A memorial service for the victims of the mile twenty-eight accident will be held tonight at seven at the Las Flores Community Church in Belmopan. A mass in celebration of the life of Kareem Griffith will be held on Thursday at eight p.m. at his home on Bermuda Street in Belmopan.