Retired Senior Citizen Killed in Fatal Collision on Boom Road

George Young

A BelAm retiree residing in Burrell Boom, Belize District, perished in a fatal traffic accident on Monday afternoon. Seventy-seven-year-old George Young was heading to Burrell Boom when he collided into an eighteen-wheeler truck carrying a bulldozer and driven by businessman Anselm Gillett.  About a mile and half pass the dump site on the Boom/Hattieville road, Young reportedly swerved into the left lane of the road colliding into the bulldozer and extensively damaging the front portion of his SUV. He died on impact. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

After two-thirty on Monday afternoon, seventy-seven-year-old George Young was traveling on the Boom/Hattieville Road towards Burrell Boom village when the Toyota Rav-Four he was driving collided into a bulldozer being transported on a MACK Truck flatbed. The impact caused extensive damage to the front and side of the SUV, killing Young as it ripped off the driver’s side of the vehicle.

Stuart Young

Stuart Young, Nephew of Deceased

“I really don’t know what happened. It appeared to have happened sometime between four-thirty and quarter to five. The police called in and then relative called and people spoke to me to tell me that he is deceased. I only got a few other matters after I went to the Ladyville police station where they were very forthcoming. I can only go by what they have said; I only saw the vehicle afterwards. We really don’t know what happened.”

Police arrived on the scene shortly after to discover Young dead inside his vehicle. Behind the wheel of the truck was forty-seven-year-old Anselm Gillett, a businessman who is also from Burrell Boom. The fatal RTA occurred about a mile and a half from the dumpsite in the circuit. According to police, both vehicles were traveling in opposite directions when Young, a Belizean retiree of Burrell Boom, swerved into the left lane hitting the bulldozer to the rear of the truck.

Stuart Young

“He was coming along and this eighteen-wheeler with this grader—a little oversized—was coming the opposite direction. It appeared that they saw the erratic way, but we are not sure—I can’t say for sure—but what he hit was really not the front of the grader, but the rear that was hanging over. You know it is a slightly wide load and it appears that it is the tracks [on the grader] that ripped into his vehicle and his arm…but as I said, we have to wait for the postmortem and that sort of thing before we go ahead with anything.”

According to his nephew Stuart Young, George has three children who live in the U.S.  The elderly man would travel back and forth to visit with his family. While he is away Sergio Lopez would keep watch of his house in Burrell Boom, where George lived alone. Lopez says he was to travel to the U.S. in February to spend his seventy-eighth birthday with his family. But he would receive a call shortly after the accident occurred; when he got out there, his boss and friend was already being carted away in the pan of a police truck.

Sergio Lopez

Sergio Lopez, Caretaker [Translated]

“When the accident occurred, my friend Paul Wade called and said that he was killed in an accident. And so I went out to the scene to check it out and there I saw some of his relatives and then we called and notified the nephew. When I got there, I only saw the mangled vehicle because they had already extricated the body. I was unable to go closer, but the vehicle was extensively damaged on the side.”

Although George was in an accident some fourteen years ago, his nephew says he was very cautious and would be remembered as an independent person who loved traveling.

Stuart Young

“He’s always moving about. He was always on the move; always going different places. He wasn’t really—I think he got too old for partying, but he still went out quite a bit so he was always traveling.”

Duane Moody for News Five.

Anselm Gillett has since been served with a notice of intended prosecution.