Traffic Accidents in Cayo and Belmopan Claim One Life, Leave One Critical

An elderly man is dead after he was knocked off his bicycle in the Cayo District on Wednesday evening. Police say that shortly after four p.m., they were summoned to the Bullet Tree Road where they saw a Ford F-150 pickup truck and the victim’s bicycle on the road. The driver of the vehicle, sixty-one-year-old Franklin Syrowatka reported that he was driving the pickup when the bicycle rider, eighty-three-year-old Jose Perez suddenly took a left turn into his lane. An ambulance rushed Perez to the San Ignacio Community Hospital, where he died. Perez was a security guard of Santiago Juan Layout in San Ignacio. Residents of the Bullet Tree Road have complained that the road is in extremely poor condition and poses a threat to pedestrians and bicyclists. Meanwhile, a little girl is in critical condition after she too was knocked down, this time in front of St Martin’s Government School in Belmopan. Eight-year-old Joselyn Pineda was reportedly along with her classmates preparing for a class trip and was crossing the road to get on the bus when an approaching vehicle struck her shortly before eight this morning. Pineda is in the Western Regional Hospital.