Wet weather causes other highway mishaps
They were not fatal, but wet weather over the weekend contributed to a number of other traffic accidents. The first occurred around six on Saturday evening on the Southern Highway and left ten people hospitalised. Twenty-eight year old Tashira Wagner of Independence Village told police she was carrying fifteen passengers in her Isuzu pickup truck between miles forty-two and forty-three when she saw two men riding bicycles across the highway. Wagner reported that as she swerved to avoid hitting the riders she lost control of the vehicle and it overturned. Thirteen of the passengers received varying degrees of injuries and ten had to be taken to the Southern Regional Hospital, including Wagner whose two arms were broken. Twenty-one year old Beona Williams had to be further transferred to the K.H.M.H. after she suffered severe injuries to the head and body.
Meanwhile in Belize City, traffic cops are investigating an incident that took place later that same Saturday night. Thirty-six year old Kevin Bowen told police that around nine as he was driving his Ford Bronco between miles two and three on the Western Highway he knocked down a cyclist, thirty-seven year old Henric Sutherland. Sutherland was taken to the K.H.M.H. where he remains hospitalised with injuries to his arms and legs.
Around that same time between miles thirty-six and thirty-seven on the Western Highway, a collision occurred between a tow head truck and pickup truck. Thirty-four year old Armando Mai, who was driving the bigger vehicle, told authorities that he was heading towards Belize City when he saw the pickup truck approaching from the opposite direction, but in the wrong lane. Mai says he tried to get out of the way and actually ran off the road, but the pickup still collided into the front bumper of his truck. The other driver, fifty-nine year old Samuel Patton, received head and body injuries and remains in the Western Regional Hospital. Today police sent out an advisory to all motorists to exercise extreme caution when driving under wet conditions.
