3 dead, 6 children orphaned in traffic accident

The reports of tragedy began to come in early and didn’t let up until mid afternoon. By newstime it was clear that at least six people were confirmed dead today of various causes, three in a single traffic accident…and that’s where we’ll begin our newscast.

Six children in the Mennonite community of Spanish Lookout are orphans tonight after their parents and sister perished in a two-car pile-up. The dead are thirty-seven year old Isaac Peters, his thirty-two year old wife Justina and their two-year-old daughter Mary Ann. The location was a familiar one: the infamous curve at mile thirty-one on the Western Highway. Treacherous even in the best weather, this morning’s rain left the pavement particularly slippery. Details are not clear, but those at the scene theorise that Peters, heading toward Belize City, lost control of his Isuzu pickup and it skidded, eventually flipping over. A Toyota sedan coming behind the pickup apparently crashed into it and eventually burned to the ground. The car’s driver, thirty-six year old Paul Moro, was taken to the K.H.M.H. where he has been drifting in and out of a coma. Isaac Peters was a self-employed mechanic, who moved to Spanish Lookout a decade or so ago from the settlement of Little Belize in the Orange Walk District. Residents of both Mennonite communities are tonight mourning the loss and preparing to raise six children without the benefit of their parents.