Herbalist, Mark Guy, killed in Bus Accident

Mark Guy

Further west, eighteen year old herbalist, Mark Guy, was killed at the start of the past weekend. He did not make it back from the football game he attended because his car slammed into an oncoming bus near Running W Meats on the Western Highway. His family is devastated at his tragic death which is eerily similar to another tragedy they suffered eighteen years ago. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The family of eighteen year old Mark Guy is tonight preparing for his funeral following a fatal traffic accident over the weekend in the Cayo District.  At approximately 10:45 p.m. on Friday police responded to an area near Central Farm where they came across a head-on collision involving a Blue Bird passenger bus belonging to Shaw’s Bus Service and a smaller vehicle driven by Guy.  His father told News Five today that he had seen Mark earlier that night before he left to attend a football game nearby.

Harry Guy

Harry Guy, Father of Deceased

“I went out a little while on Friday and I come in back about eight-thirty.  When I reach back eight thirty he ask me, ih “say dad you going out?” I tell him no I’m not going out anywhere.  He said “I wanted to go da Broaster Stadium” ih say “just to look at the game then after game” ih say “I’m going to computer place weh dehn play game.”  I tell ahn ok then go ahead and so he left and gone.  He left quarter to nine.”

Two hours later tragedy struck and Mark found himself gravely injured behind the steering wheel of the red Ford Escort he was driving.  According to a police report the driver of the bus, twenty-nine year old Osman Ordonez, was heading towards San Ignacio when Guy, who was traveling in the opposite direction, swerved into his lane.  To avoid hitting the oncoming vehicle, Ordonez veered right but was unsuccessful in escaping the frontal impact.  Guy’s aunt, Felicia Richard-Hulse received news of the misfortune from a sister.

Felicia Richard-Hulse

Felicia Richard-Hulse, Aunt of Deceased

“It was my youngest sister’s birthday and I called her to see if she was going out and she said “no I’m at Running W,” she said.  My oldest sister was in the bus coming from [the] Belmopan Hospital.  She was in the bus that Mark, well, crashed into and somebody was in the car but she didn’t know who it was and they were waiting to see because my oldest sister, the nurse, she went to check his pulse but she didn’t turn his face to see who it was.”

The car had slammed violently into the front of the bus and despite being freed from the wreckage sometime later Mark was pronounced dead on arrival at the San Ignacio Town Community Hospital.  For the family it’s the second such tragedy has befallen them.

Harry Guy

“The first one was the twenty-sixth of February and this one was the twenty-fifth of February.  Eighteen years in difference.”

Isani Cayetano

“How is the family coping with this tragedy?”

Felicia Richard-Hulse

“Really hard because on the same date after eighteen years his older brother, my uncle Harry’s oldest son, he died in an accident also.”

According to Harry Guy the family is awaiting the outcome of a police investigation to determine who was at fault in fatal accident.

Harry Guy

“I gone deh.  When I went deh dah mi di night so we nuh know rightly who right from wrong, you know, so just we just di wait fih di police investigation.”

Bus driver Osman Ordonez has since been served with a notice of intended prosecution while his conductor, twenty-four year old Kenny Valencia received an abrasion below the left eye as a result of the incident. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.