Primary school student falls from crowded bus
Tonight, a student of the Holy Redeemer Primary school is at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital receiving treatment for injuries he received in a traffic accident involving a bus belonging to Haylock Bus Service. The bus was transporting students and other passengers from the City when it is said that the minor, identified as nine year old Martin Noble and brother of one of Channel Five’s cameramen, was flung from the backdoor of the overcrowded bus and onto the pavement. Noble on first glance, according to another student also travelling on the bus, appeared to have received serious head injuries from the impact. Help was called in and the minor was rushed to the K.H.M.H. by ambulance. When News Five arrived on the scene, the latch to backdoor of the bus was visibly missing and a padlock was used to keep it closed. News Five spoke with a high school student traveling on the same bus who says she was frightened by the incident. She recounted what happened.
Accident Witness
“We mi deh pan di bus and I mi di sit down deh soh cause I move wah seat up. And then we hear wah scream back of the bus and then the lee bwai start to bang pan di door and da so we see ih holler, “My bredda, my bredda, my bredda drop through deh.” And dah soh when the bus stop, I just run; me and the driver, we run towards the scene and some people called the ambulance and we just see weh di happen and afterwards we see weh we could do. But before the ambulance left, the lee bwai was unconscious because ih di bleed through everywhere part of ih face. Ih face was swollen and the paramedics and everything come; the police come and then dehn just ker ih body and gone. And then we had to wait here. We heard that the bus can’t move; that is why they sent for another bus.”
Duane Moody
“So that’s it that happened? You don’t know what caused it? How the door opened?”
Accident Witness
“The driver says that the kids were playing behind the bus. I don’t know; I don’t know.”
Duane Moody
“How old was this person more or less?”
Accident Witness
“To me, I woulda say nine ten that’s all.”
Duane Moody
“Ih dah mi wah student where?”
Accident Witness
“Holy Redeemer.”
Moments later, another Haylock Bus came and transported the other passengers to their destination.
Any where else in the world, a bus company that keeps a padlock on the back door which is the only EMERGENCY EXIT, would lose its liscense IMMEDIATELY. OWNER AND DRIVER arrested.
A country that has fail to protect its people.
when will the transport department do something about these overcrowded and unsafe busses. They are the ones to blame for allowing these busses to run on the highway.
Overloaded bus from windshield to back door to persons hanging outside the bus, unsecured buses do not even meet the first safety standard, Filthy bus, is only the beginning of the many shortcomings that can be listed.
However there is still nothing being done to fix this. They even pass check point both police and traffic officer.. NOTHING HAPPENS once they know the person.
example the driver having to use a knife to accelerate the bus while driving..
This is just upsetting and what happened to the child is just ignorance at its best.. and to have ministries responsible for these things then it calls for concern and shows they are not doing their JOB..Just plain stupid
Melvin Hulse, Clear the Land Castro, now Merlene Bailey Martinez, all UDP operatives that love to talk and what is the result,NADAAA. they criticize the NOVELO venture night and day while they were in opposition, now they are in their SECOND TERM in government and the bus system is in the worst condition ever.
Stop blame the bus owners, we already have high fuel price and the import duty on buses are high. What they need to do is to drop the import duty then they will afford to purchase new bus. On the other hand they should not allow people to stand on the bus and also they should have repair that back door. Charge them for the accident and hope that the child get a hansom money from the insurance. Sue the insurance as whenever you pay you pay for insurance on the bus note that if the child die the insurance tipple as it is a paying passenger. Do not let insurance get away and they will make sure that they do not insure buses with problems. Start from the insurance as they allow the bus to be operational on the highway.
The only way to have this problem resolved is to implement a law stating that all standees ride for free and everybody else sitting pays half price, bet the bus owners and drivers/conductors would only have seated people at all times in the bus since it wouldn’t benefit them to have standees.
It would take traffic officers posted every half mile to avoid standees which would not be logical but a mandatory law would hold because the bus owners would make sure it is kept for the purpose of their business.
That bus company needs to be sued for the hazard, Being greedy stuffing everyone together like sardines. Belizean Government need to be more strict they should be no passenger boarding a bus if there’s not enough seat to sit. Especially buses travelling on the highway. Accident like this was bound to happen.
The safety of the bus physically is equally as important as to the way how they drive. Yesterday one of these buses purposely forced me off the road and almost caused an accident. Fortunately nothing happened but they are very delinquent in their driving habits
Its a shame on the Police and the traffic officers the bus goes crowded cuz they police and traffic officers rides the bus for free and allow this to happen if they would have paid there passage they would not allow. So like how they ride free when the bus pass they allow the bus to pass like that. the government needs to do something about this situation Get there butts up and make the people safe while traveling from one destination to the next. even the Traffic department has the fault buses like this should not be allowed to run the road blame them too.
Brilliant idea, Carmen! The problem would be fixed overnight if standees had to be carried free.
The bus company should be closed down until all of its buses can be CAREFULLY inspected and meet EVERY safety requirement. Or let the boy’s family become owners of the company. This “accident” is all on the shoulders of the bus company owners.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: Why is there a high custom duty on buses, or any vehicle except perhaps luxury cars? Duties exist mainly to protect domestic industries, but Belize doesn’t make any motor vehicle. But our domestic economy NEEDS buses and trucks, and the people need cars. So get rid of the duty, and let us modernize the transportation here. Among other things, business will improve if transportation improves.
Lawless!!! Belizean have no respect for the law… They don’t need new laws, just enforce the ones that are already on the books… If the family sue the bus company, that would put them out of business for sure….It is a shame!