Mother of 3 Perishes in Road Traffic Accident, 2 Others Hospitalized
Neidy Cifuentes
A mother of three was killed in a road traffic accident on Sunday afternoon in western Belize. San Ignacio resident, Neidy Cifuentes was driving with a friend and her daughter in a rental SUV when she experienced a tire blow out and lost control of her vehicle at the entrance of Succotz Village. The vehicle flipped several times and the three occupants were badly injured. Cifuentes died afterwards at the hospital. The nine-year-old is hospitalized the San Ignacio Community Hospital in a stable condition, while her mother is now in the K.H.M.H. in a serious condition. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
On Sunday just after midday, twenty-seven-year-old Neidy Cifuentes was driving between miles seventy one and seventy two on the George Price Highway – approaching San Jose Succotz village, when the vehicle she was driving experienced a blow out. This caused Cifuentes to lose control of the vehicle here – and as the skid marks show the SUV ran off the highway for a distance after which it flipped several times and landed on the side in these bushes. Cifuentes, and her two passengers a mother and daughter duo, Sandra Garcia and her nine-year-old Ziyanda Tzib, all suffered head and body injuries. But the impact of the accident was too much for Cifuentes and she died a few hours later at the hospital. Garcia and her daughter remain hospitalized. Cifuentes’ aunt Brenda Lopez says she saw her niece a few minutes before the tragic accident that claimed her life.
Sandra Garcia & Ziyanda Tzib
Brenda Lopez, Aunt of Deceased
“We neva know what she is doing but the last place she gone dah my house. She reach dah my house twelve clock and she just reach and she tell me, ‘Aunty, I love you so much.’ She mi look so happy and it mi feel very strange because she neva come and hug me. She tell me, ‘Aunty, I love you.’ I hold her and tell ah, ‘Gyal, come mek I tell you something. What you doing?. And she tell me, ‘Nothing, aunty, I just happy.’ And she talk with my grandson and she come out. I noticed that she had a friend in the car and a lee gyal. I mi di try come outside fi tell ah mek she be careful to drive because she has a lee gial inna the car but when I come out she hurry and speed and gone. And it nuh give me time to tell she nothing.”
It is said that it was with that same speed Cifuentes was driving along the highway when she left from San Ignacio Town heading towards Succotz Village. The family believes the speed caused the tyre blowout, which made Cifuentes lose control of the vehicle and crash. Lopez says that she passed the scene of the accident shortly afterwards.
Brenda Lopez
Brenda Lopez, Aunt of Deceased
“When we see a car on the side of the road, my husband tell me, ‘see that dah big crash.’ But something I feel like – and I tell ah, ‘ you know what, that car look like Neidy one.’ But we never stopped because we had to reach dah the border and when I come back my daughter received a call and said, ‘ma, deh ker Neidy dah hospital because she mi deh inna accident.’ And then I ketch that something happened.”
Cifuentes, a mother of three, enjoyed a close relationship with her family. Her aunt says the kind and friendly woman will be remembered for her giving and helpful nature.
Brenda Lopez
“We neva expect fi this. This is hard because she was a young gial; so pretty; so happy. She dah somebody like an angel because anybody weh have a problem, she will be right there with everybody and she didn’t care who it was because she tried to help everybody. She dah mi wah nice person.”
Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
