One B.D.F. Officer Dead, Ten Injured, in Tragic Road Traffic Accident
Roxanne Hill
The Belize Defense Force has lost yet another member of its rank and file in less than a month. Tonight, the family of Private Roxanne Hill and her fellow officers at Price Barracks are mourning her untimely demise. The thirty-seven-year-old lost her life in a tragic road traffic accident on the George Price Highway in Cotton Tree Village on Thursday. The accident also left ten other soldiers with varying degrees of injuries. News Five’s Paul Lopez has the story.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Abner Guzman
Abner Guzman, Common-Law Husband of Deceased
“Yesterday was her birthday and we planned to have a date night, me and she at the Brewery. I was waiting for her here at the camp. When I called her around seven, that is when they gave me the bad news.”
Paul Lopez
“You called who answered and who answered?”
Abner Guzman
“Major Nunez, and told me what occurred.”
Thirty-seven-year-old Belize Defense Force Private, Roxanne Hill, the common law wife of Abner Guzman for the past seven years, died in a tragic accident last night on the George Price Highway. She along with a passenger bus full of her B.D.F. colleagues were on their way to Belize City from the funeral of Private Micah Miguel in Hopkins Village. Lieutenant Colonel Jermaine Burns briefed the media this morning on the details of the accident.
Jermaine Burns
Lt. Col. Jermaine Burns, Chief of Staff, B.D.F.
“While returning from the funeral of private Micah, one of our vehicles transporting members of the van and a few others got into a head on collision with another vehicle. Just outside of Belmopan, approximately ten minutes outside of Belmopan. Unfortunately there was the passing of one of our female soldiers, Lance Corporal Roxanne Goff- Hill. The bus had in a total of eleven passengers. It was a passenger van. The preliminary details into what happened. While those details are fairly separate right now, I can say that the driver was on his side of the road. There was another vehicle coming in the opposite direction that attempted to move away from a bus that apparently swerved into the road, that appeared to be in a parking position, and that vehicle swerved into the lane of the incoming B.D.F. van. It was hit at high speed.”
According to initial information from the doctors who were first on the scene, Lance Corporal Mansfield Danderson, who was driving the bus at the time, did not show any signs of intoxication. Lance Corporal Hill died on impact. This afternoon, Abner Guzman and Hill’s sister-in-law, Sherena Banner, shared the burden of having to inform Hill’s children about their mother’s passing. Guzman shared a biological child with her. He also raised two others from Hill’s previous relationship.
Abner Guzman
“Well I just hope that me and the father works in the best interest of the kids. I guess they were both close to me. I spent and raised them most of their childhood and I think we created a bond. Without them, I think it would just leave me incomplete, because without their mother I have already, a piece of me has already gone, and I don’t know what I would do with them leaving me.”
Sherena Banner
Sherena Banner, Sister-in-Law of Deceased
“Yesterday when I got the news, up to now the two youngest children that were with me, they did not know. We are waiting for their dad to break the news to them. When you have someone so special in your life, cherish it. One day, it could be taken from you. And, that is what happened to me yesterday. I look at her kids sleeping this morning and it really messed me up, because they don’t know anything. The kids were with from Monday, so today they were coming to pick them up. We already had a trip planned to go to Spanish lookout with the kids. The gas was in the vehicle and I would not ever image that I would have had to use that to go to Cayo and Belmopan today.”
The Belize Defense Force is cooperating with the Belize Police Department in an ongoing investigation into the accident. The B.D.F. is also planning Hill’s funeral. The female soldiers at Price Barracks are having a hard time accepting Hill’s untimely demise, especially since her life came to an abrupt end on the same day they buried Private Micah Miguel. Hill and Miguel were close friends.
Micah Miguel
Sherena Banner
“When she learnt that Micah passed away, I was the one she called and she was the one that she called and we were on the phone for late, all through late the night we were messaging another and I tried to keep her from beating herself up too much, because she said Sher I spoke to her this morning and I didn’t pick up on anything. I told her, I said Rox, you can’t keep beating up yourself like that.
When you have someone so special in your life, because one day it could be taken from you, and that is what happened to me yesterday.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez
