One dead, three injured in W. Hwy. crash
It was the kind of scenario that everyone driving on the Western Highway at night dreads…and on Friday one woman was killed and three others critically injured when their vehicle ran into the back end of a semi-trailer.
Thirty-two year old Tyrone Bennett remains in a coma at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after the car he was travelling in crashed into a trailer.
Osburn Vernon, Brother
“He’s in a coma right now, and it doesn’t look.”
The police say the accident happened Friday night between miles ten and eleven on the Western Highway. According to reports twenty-three year old Shirley Alba Castellanos McDonald, was driving a gray Buick heading towards Hattieville. Inside the vehicle was Bennett, twelve-year old Rochelle Castellanos and forty-two year old Sharon Castellanos. Police say McDonald was trying to overtake the container truck, but at the same time another truck was coming in the opposite direction. She tried to swerve away, but collided into the rear left wheels of the trailer. McDonald received serious head injuries and died on arrival at the KHMH, while Rochelle and Sharon received injuries to the face and chest and remains hospitalized in a critical, but stable condition. But opinions on what caused the tragedy are not unanimous.
Jacqueline Woods
“Families members claim the trailer had no lights and was parked on the shoulder of the road, and by the time Castellanos saw the vehicle, it was too late.?
Osburn Vernon
“The person parked on the road. I don?t know if he would be okay, because we don?t like the idea… Everybody knows what happened, we have proof of what happened. The trailer wasn?t moving, we all know it wasn?t moving and I just want to let Belize know that we will try our best to make sure things like this don?t happen and we?ll be dealing hardly with the situation.?
Jacqueline Woods
?I understand the trailer was right there on the shoulder of the road without any lights.?
Osburn Vernon
?Without any lights, right on the road side, on a straight piece of road, numerous people saw it there. The claim to say the trailer was moving, all of us know that that trailer wasn?t moving.
Jacqueline Woods
?So you think the driver didn?t see the trailer or something why she tried to overtake??
Osburn Vernon
?No. I?m a driver also, and I know that if a trailer doesn?t have lights although your vehicle has lights, you don?t see that until you are very close, and that?s what happened. Nobody was speeding. The girl was a careful driver, she took her time driving and this is something that people are trying to put that it was a reckless driver or somebody that?s not careful, and that’s not so.”
The driver of the truck has been identified as Arthur Hinds. Police say no charges have been brought against Hinds as the accident is still under investigation.
