14 hospitalised as loaded pickup overturns

A traffic accident that occurred on Sunday has landed at least fourteen people in the hospital. Pedro Cal and fifteen family members of Salvapan were returning from an outing near the Sibun River, when around mile thirty-three on the Western Highway, his white Toyota pick-up overturned after a blowout. Inside the cab were Cal, his wife Maria, and two of his seven children. The rest of the family were riding in the pan. Carlos and Pedro jr. were the only two children who escaped unharmed but Myra, Oscar, Geovanni, Maribell, and Aurora remain hospitalized. Details remain sketchy and the identity and condition of the other seven adult passengers remain unknown. However News Five’s Jose Sanchez was able to speak briefly to Mr. and Mrs. Cal about the accident.

Francisco Solier, Friend, Translating for Pedro Cal

“He left the river around 12:30 and took the road from Belmopan. He heard a noise and he does not remember anything else because he got serious injuries. They had gone swimming.”

Jose Sanchez

“How many of them went?”

Francisco Solier

“I heard it was about sixteen of them, but they were all family.”

Jose Sanchez

“Were any of them seriously injured?”

Francisco Solier

“One of the ladies is in a serious condition, and her daughter. She is in operation at the moment. I heard the operation would finish about 5:30.”

Jose Sanchez

“What about the other kids that were there?”

Francisco Solier

“The kids are okay, one of the girls broke her shoulder.”

Maria Cal, Accident Victim

“When I saw the car going from side to side, I alerted him, but he could not stop the car. I didn’t see anything else after that. There were other people parked near the river, and I asked one of the drivers to help us and he brought us here to the hospital.”

Maria is eight months pregnant but doctors told her that her unborn baby is fine.