Stann Creek man dies after run over by citrus trailer

A man is dead tonight after he was run over by a citrus trailer on which he was riding on the Hummingbird Highway. Thirty-seven year old Richard Velasquez of Pomona Village was crushed around three-thirty yesterday afternoon just as he had reached his destination. According to twenty year old Gerald Rancharan, driver of the tractor pulling the trailer load of grapefruit from Dangriga to Pomona, he slowed down near the Ministry of Works compound to let off Velasquez, whom he noticed had already moved from atop the fruits and was now standing between the tractor and the trailer. However, he said that as he was about to come to a halt, he felt the trailer suddenly jerk. Rancharan said that when he stopped to check, he observed that he had run over Velasquez who was lying in the road about eight feet behind the trailer. Velasquez died forty minutes later from serious chest injuries at the Southern Regional Hospital. Police say their investigations into the accident continue.