Belmopan Basketball Team on Bus Involved in Fatal RTA in Quintana Roo

A basketball athlete from the Belmopan Trojans team is tonight hospitalized in Chetumal after the passenger bus the team was traveling in collided into a truck near Bacalar, Quintana Roo. The team was returning to Belize from Cancun when the ADO bus collided into the rear of a Ford truck that was parked on the left hand side near the Miguel Hidalgo junction.  The impact sent a passenger through the windshield of the bus and he perished at the scene. The bus was carrying forty passengers; sixteen were injured, five are in critical condition and have been taken to medical facilities in Chetumal. The drivers of both vehicles fled the scene. The team is expected to return later tonight or on Tuesday, but National Sports Council Director, Ian Jones spoke of what he knows about the incident.

Ian Jones

Ian Jones, Director, National Sports Council

“I was informed that the Trojans were on a public transportation in Chetumal, I think it was an ADO bus, and around two a.m. this morning, the bus attempted to overtake another vehicle in traffic. And I believe a Mexican; I don’t know if it was the driver of the bus or the driver of the other vehicle had passed away and two of the athletes got minor injuries and were taken to the hospital. But nothing major to any of the athletes and I believe if they are not in Belize already, they are on their way back to Belize. They were in Cancun for Copa Cancun; I believe was the tournament that they were going to play. Often times we have several teams from Belize that would travel to Cancun and different parts of Mexico to play in these tournaments and I believe that this is just one of those instances.”

The team left Belize last Tuesday for the COPA Cancun International Tournament.