Mother claims taxi killed child
When we reported the incident on yesterday’s newscast it came across as one of many tragic events that wind their way from the streets to the files of the police department. But when I visited the scene this morning I discovered that the death of a baby boy in Belize City was anything but routine… and even more tragic than I thought.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The mark where 2-year old Christopher Fitzgibbon was fatally knocked down remains embedded in the pavement on 8th Street in King’s Park. The toddler, who lives just across the street from where the accident took place, was playing with friends by an abandoned car when he was hit by an unidentified vehicle traveling up the street.
Cristibel Fitzgibbon, Mother
They go to Sunday school and they would sit and sing Sunday school songs and clap. That’s what they would do there by that car, I don’t know… nobody heard the vehicle when it braked, nobody heard it when it reversed or when it came, they heard nothing.
26-year old Cristibel Fitzgibbon says she was at a neighbours’ house playing dominoes when she got the news that her son was seriously injured.
Cristibel Fitzgibbon
When I ran out, it is because my sister is coming and handing me this dead baby. So I ran up and down because I got confused and didn’t know what to do. The taxi was there, so she said “Gial see a taxi here. Get in the taxi.” She opened the door and I got in the taxi. When I felt the baby, I already knew that the baby was dead because there was no heartbeat, no pulse, no nothing. The man is driving slow, so I told him “Please hurry reach the hospital with this baby for me, please hurry.” He said “Okay mami,” then he started to drive fast.
But there was nothing the hospital could do to save the young boy’s life. While the police in their Tuesday release described the accident as a hit and run, Fitzgibbon says that a neighbour told her that it was the same taxi that gave her the lift to the hospital that hit her son.
Cristibel Fitzgibbon
“All what he did was just dropped me at the hospital and I noticed that I didn’t pay him. So I was taking out the money, but when I looked back he had already reversed and went about his business.”
“When I reach home, my neighbour, Nelson Hyde, said “Cris, the same man that took you in that taxi is the same one that knocked down the baby.” When he reversed, because a Belikin truck was behind him, he couldn’t run away. The man in the Belikin truck is related to them(her neighbours) so all of them are giving their attention to this man(in the truck). But at the same time, he (the taxi man) didn’t know, so he felt that they are giving their attention to him. He told them “I think I knocked something, where’s the baby’s mother?” After I came from the hospital, they told me that.”
When News Five contacted the driver of the car, he told us that he did not make any comment nor knock down anyone. He said he was simply driving in the area and when he noticed Fitzgibbon was in trouble he did a favour by giving her a lift to the hospital.
In related news another traffic accident, this time in Corozal, has resulted in the death of a 6-year old. Reports on Love FM indicate that Sonia Tench of Ranchito Village was hit by a vehicle around 2:00 Tuesday afternoon between miles 81 and 82 on the Northern Highway. The driver, Jose Majil of Corozal Town, has been charged with manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct and driving without due care and attention. Tench was dead on arrival at Corozal Hospital.
