Cart driver killed on highway

Shortly before four this evening a seventeen year old youth who had been riding a bicycle cart was killed on the Western Highway as he tried to avoid getting hit by a dump truck. According to Jorge Velasquez he and his brother-in-law, Noel Sanchez were delivering a refrigerator to eight miles when Sanchez took over peddling the cart. Velasquez said he had jumped off the cart and ran up a couple of miles to wait for Sanchez. But Velasquez says when he turned around he saw a white van stop just behind the cart to allow a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction to pass. That’s when Velasquez saw a dump truck, travelling at high speed overtake the van on the right hand side, and run off the side of the highway. Velasquez says Sanchez, trying to avoid getting hit, jumped off his bike. But the young man couldn’t get out of the way and was dragged several feet.

Jorge Velasquez, Brother-in-Law

“We come down from Belize to eight miles pushing the bicycle cart and so he was supposed to meet we up the road and so he meet me at six miles and a half. So I take a rest and he start to push with my brother-in-law. So I tell him I will wait at seven miles and so I was lying down by the post. All of a sudden I saw a white van stop behind them and then that truck took over the van on this side and so my brother-in-law get frightened and so he ran. When he ran the car drag him and he had his brakes on so it ride right over his head and dragged him.”

According to witnesses because the dump truck was travelling at a high speed it could not stop in time and to avoid a collision with the van, so driver Jason Staine took to the bushes not knowing that Sanchez was peddling his cart just up ahead on the side of the highway. Reports are that Staine applied brakes but was unable to bring the truck to a full stop.