Another Multiple Traffic Fatality in Four Days
Only last evening News Five brought you the dos and don’ts for road traffic safety. Before the story even aired, shortly after six ‘clock, news broke that there was another multiple traffic fatality out west – the second in only four days. And similarly to the one on the Hummingbird Highway on Saturday night, this one also claimed the lives of four work colleagues who were heading home after a day’s work. The mishap occurred right near the mile sixty-two milepost on the George Price Highway. News Five’s Marion Ali brings you the story in this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Four work colleagues of the Roaring River Golf Course in Camalote Village were traveling in this contorted grey Isuzu Amigo SUV when a white Dodge Ram truck overtaking them, swerved into the pick-up before clearing its path in front of them. That move proved deadly for Mattias Gonzalez, Noel Pineda, Christian Lobos and Ian Harrison Mahler. Yesenia Gonzalez’ father did not survive. Today we caught up with her in San Ignacio and she relived her last communication with him on Wednesday morning.
Yesenia Gonzalez
Yesenia Gonzalez, Daughter of Mattias Gonzalez
“Through text message, yesterday morning, he just told me good morning and he saw a Facebook post that said it was international day of the short guys, so he told me “this is for you,” and I said your wife too, cause he’s not with my mom anymore. So he just laughed and that was it.”
Marion Ali
“How is the family coping with the loss?
Yesenia Gonzalez
“This is a real difficult loss for us, for most people in the community too that knew him.”
Police say that Noel Pineda was driving the Isuzu SUV with his co-workers heading in the direction from Belmopan towards San Ignacio and that fifty-year-old Alejandro Hernandez, who was traveling alone in the Dodge Ram, heading in the same direction, began to overtake a number of vehicles. When he attempted to overtake Pineda’s vehicle, however, he was not able to get back in the lane in time to avoid a head-on collision with traffic travelling in the opposite direction. The Dodge Ram clipped the SUV, causing it to charge into a ditch off the road. This evening, the police department’s Regional Commander of Eastern Division, A.C.P Hilberto Romero said that Hernandez is detained pending charges.
Hilberto Romero
A.C.P Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander, Eastern Division
“Alejandro Hernandez is in custody. A urine sample has been obtained and he will be charged for the fatalities.”
Reporter
“What type of charges are we looking at?”
A.C.P Hilberto Romero
“Manslaughter by negligence and driving without due care and attention.”
Aside from the four men who died, three of their coworkers who were traveling with them, namely: Melvin Ramos, Eric Delgado and Ostocio Garcia survived, but are being hospitalized. Ramos underwent surgery today for a broken hip and Delgado suffered head injuries and a broken right arm. The four men who were killed all worked for Roaring River Golf Course in Camalote. Manager of that facility, Hugo Contreras told News Five that the incident has left the staff devastated.
Hugo Contreras
Hugo Contreras, Manager, Roaring River Golf Course
“The morale of the rest of my staff is quite low. This morning we had a brief meeting, we had a small prayer, asking for the souls of those that we lost yesterday. Today, I mean, you know, we need to keep on going, but it’s been hard. It’s been hard. It’s not easy, and there’s absolutely no replacing of anybody. From now on we just need to figure out what they left off with the project and then just try to take it from there.”
Marion Ali
“Tell us a little bit about the project itself.”
Hugo Contreras
“The project itself is – we’re doing some renovations to some of our existing rooms. We’ve already finished some of them and they were finishing three and then they were waiting to move on to the last one early in January. They were probably about three quarter way done, so, you know, it’s difficult.”
In light of the two multiple traffic fatalities that have happened out west since Saturday night, A.C.P Romero says the police are setting up more check points along the highways as of now and heading into the holiday season next month.
A.C.P Hilberto Romero
“We have our checkpoints up and we are currently working on putting other checkpoints along the highway, again, to discourage drivers from this issue of reckless driving. And again, we encourage drivers to exercise extreme caution. Yesterday it was raining really hard, and so, these persons should be more precautious, you know, to ensure that you have a clear path when overtaking, because that seems to be the issue here that led to this accident. The ones that are up are managed 24 hours, but we will also have others that will be set up for this coming Christmas season.”
Marion Ali for News Five.
