Collision on W. Hwy. takes life of Belmopan woman
An early morning accident on the Western Highway has claimed the life of a young woman from Belmopan. Twenty-seven year old Elizabeth Heusner, an employee of the Belize Bank, was a passenger in a Geo Tracker driven by thirty-two year old Rhondine Twist. The pair were heading east toward Belize City around six-thirty when, between miles forty-two and forty-three, a child ran out from in front of a bus that was stopped on the right side of the road. When Twist tried to avoid the collision she swerved directly into the path of a cement truck heading in the opposite direction. That truck’s driver, Brandon McKoy, told News 5 that the small S.U.V. just didn’t have a chance.
Brandon McKoy, Truck Driver
?I was going west on the highway about forty-four miles and about a hundred and fifty feet away from me, in front of me, a bus was parked on the right hand side taking off passengers and a little boy run across the highway. At the same time the black Tracker was coming from behind the bus and she was trying to prevent hitting the little boy and she lost control of the vehicle and run into my truck.?
Stewart Krohn
?When the accident happened, you immediately pulled to the side of the road and rendered assistance. What kind of condition were the passengers in the Tracker??
Brandon McKoy
?I was able to get the driver out. She came out and told me there was somebody else in the Tracker. When I opened the door I expected to see a little baby, but when I looked on the passenger side it was a Hispanic young lady, and she was really mashed up in the truck. My heart just fell, I felt sad for her. And then from there a whole bunch of people came along and we tried to take her out, to get the door open so when the ambulance came they were able to get her out quicker to take her to the hospital. It happened so fast it?s hard to really adjust yourself sometimes when it happen so fast. Even though you see it, you?re trying to adjust to prevent the accident and I was trying to find a way to move around her, but she keep sliding right into my truck and there was no way I could get away from her.?
Stewart Krohn
?Speaking of your truck, when you look at the Tracker and then you look at your truck, the relative damage between the two vehicles, you have to I guess know what it means the expression ?built like a Mack truck.?
Brandon McKoy
?Yeah, built like a Mack truck, but at the same time the vehicle, that vehicle?s like paper compared to the truck. It?s sad, sad to say.?
Heusner was taken to the Belmopan Hospital and later transferred to the K.H.M.H., where she died around one this afternoon. Twist is reported to have suffered only minor injuries. A few hours later and eight miles to the east, a Ford Ranger police truck also went off the road. While the vehicle suffered significant damage from its encounter with the bush, the driver escaped injury.
