Driver charged following death of passenger

It never made it to the weekend police blotter but a Belize City teenager has died due to injuries he sustained when he fell out the back of a pick-up truck. According to court reports, around nine on Sunday morning seventeen year old student Marcel Harris was travelling in the pan of a Ford Ranger but when the vehicle turned off Graduate Avenue into University Drive, Harris fell out. He was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital suffering from severe head and body injuries. The teen was put on life support but he died on Monday. This morning, the pickup’s driver, twenty-three year old car washer Wilford Arnold appeared in Magistrate’s Court where he was hit with a barrage of serious charges including Manslaughter by Negligence, Causing Death by Careless Conduct, Driving without Due Care and Attention, Driving without a Valid Driver’s License, Using a Motor Vehicle not covered by Third Party Insurance, Failure to Report an accident and the seldom used, Permitting Persons to Travel who are not Properly Seated. Arnold is out on bail of five thousand dollars and the case has been adjourned until May twenty-eighth.