Two girls injured as bus pins them to railing
The plague of injuries and death involving public buses that afflicted the nation’s highways over the last year has not abated in 2002. Tonight two students from Ladyville are lucky to be alive after they were trapped between a moving bus and the metal pedestrian railing at Belize City’s Western Highway roundabout. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods responded immediately to viewer calls and files this report.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Fifteen-year-old Shamira McKoy and fourteen-year-old Nicole Vacarro had just alighted the bus when they were crushed between the vehicle and the railing of the sidewalk. The young ladies’ slippers and the blood stained pavement tell of the sheer horror the girls experienced when they were hit.
Shamira McKoy, 15 years old
“When we come off the bus, the man ride off and squeeze me and my cousin and we bawl fi we Ma.”
McKoy and Vacarro both suffered a fractured pelvis and remain in a stable condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Beulah Bodden, Shamira’s Mother
“Well right now she is complaining about a pain in her hip, knees and a slight headache.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What has the doctors done?”
Beulah Bodden
“They have her in observation before they take her to the surgical ward for her fractured pelvis.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What is Nicole’s present condition?”
Elida Vacarro, Mother
“The doctor said her two hips were broken, her bladder was ruptured and that’s all we know for right now because she is still in the operating theatre.”
Vacarro says she does not know of her daughter will walk again. As both families hope for the best, the incident has once again sparked public outcry about the need for safe bus transportation.
Merlene Roaches, Witness
“He never did stop at the bus stop. Right where you see the bus stop, that’s right where he stop. Over there is not a bus stop, there’s a bus sign down that way and one over that way, so he could have gone around and stop over that side to let the children come off. So in a way, he is in the wrong.”
John Brackett, Concerned Citizen
“I think if the bus driver would have stayed on the road where he is supposed to be, and if the passenger would have let off at the right place by law, then I think we wouldn’t have the situation happening. I work in the streets and many times I see where people come off buses and they are not at a bus stop. I don’t know what’s happening, but somebody has to do something about this.”
The police were on the scene taking the necessary measurements and getting statements to try and determine what could have caused the accident. According to Novelo’s Northern Transport bus driver, Leonzo Rivera, he first stopped the bus on the pedestrian walk and opened the door, but no passengers came off. Rivera, contrary to the law, then decided to drive off without closing the door. It was during this time Rivera says the girls moved to the front of the bus to get out.
Leonzo Rivera, Bus Driver
“To be frank with you, I stopped at the pedestrian walk. My conductor asked if anybody will come out and nobody said anything. At that time, I opened the door and by the time I moved from there to here, the two girls ran to the door. I didn’t close the door because I had another top at the Shell gas station, and it was just about a hundred yards. The girls ran to the door, and before they jump out, I stopped and they came out.”
However, where the girls got off they could not move safely onto the sidewalk and decided to walk on the outside of the pavement. At the same time the bus started to move, Rivera says he had to quickly swerve to the right to avoid hitting a truck. That put him on a collision course with McKoy and Vacarro.
Leonzo Rivera
“A next truck was coming from the next side from the next lane and the truck squeeze me because like the truck gone to the side. So to not let the truck knock me, I haul up more on this side and I never know I would hurt these little kids.”
Merlene Roaches, who works for the City Council was on the opposite side of the roundabout when she suddenly heard screams coming from the moving bus.
Merlene Roaches
“So when he driving off, I heard when the two girls scream, so we told the man to wait because the two girls were getting crushed. One of the girls spun around three times when he was moving off. At that time the other had already dropped to the floor and got hurt over this side. So if he didn’t stop, the one that fell would have gone underneath the wheel.”
No charges as yet have been brought against Rivera. According to the police, once they have finished questioning Rivera, the file will be sent over to the Director of Public Prosecution who will then decide on what, if any charges, will be brought against him. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Parents of both girls told News 5 they will be looking to the bus company to take care of their medical expenses.
