Mobile Patrol Along Seven-mile Stretch to Haulover Bridge

Linden Flowers

Now the last time we spoke with Senior Superintendent Flowers, traffic accidents were a perennial problem in the precinct four area.  Today it still remains the most prevalent issue officers find themselves policing in that zone. Flowers told News Five that a mobile patrol will soon be installed along the stretch of highway from Save U to Haulover Bridge to reduce the number of accidents.

Sr. Supt. Linden Flowers, O.C., Precinct 4, Eastern Division North

“Yes, traffic accidents is the perennial issue in precinct four area, fortunately. Daily we conduct traffic checks and we invite drivers to be more careful, to be cognizant of the amount of traffic that is passing particularly on the highway. And that stretch of area where the accident occurred this morning, it has a median and you are traveling into Belize City. So you have to be careful to observe whether a vehicle will be pulling off to the right to go into the many establishments. Again, we also see an improvement in the area where the speed bumps are…some people come up to the speed bumps and they arrive there and run into a vehicle that slows down to cross the checkpoint. So I ask drivers to be more cognizant of the rules of the road, cognizant of the distractions that are caused by drivers: the text and the cell phones and whole lot of other music in the vehicle. That will distract you….even the talk show that was going on. Time to time you see these kinds of incidents. So it is something that we are working on. In the next couple of weeks, you will see a specific patrol, a mobile patrol for the area from Save U to Haulover, in the Bella Vista area of precinct four to see if we can alleviate the amount of traffic. We have currently where a patrol from this area assist with the traffic in the morning, as well as city traffic personnel going there, but that is not enough. We are asking now the drivers to be more alert. Again we have the opening of the Chetumal Street Bridge and a lot of motorists are using this area, so we ask people to continue to be alert.”