Four dead in weekend road accidents
And while investigators were dealing with bloodshed in the streets, there was also carnage on the nation’s highways as separate accidents over the weekend claimed four lives.
The first occurred around eight on Friday night between miles thirty-nine and forty on the Western Highway. Police reports are that forty-eight year old Roberto Zuniga was riding his bicycle when he was knocked down from behind. The victim was rushed to the Western Regional Hospital but doctors there pronounced him dead on arrival. Up to news time the driver involved in the accident, who failed to stop, had yet to be identified.
Friday night’s other deadly collision occurred around eleven on the Hummingbird Highway. Investigations into the cause of the crash continue but indications are that forty-seven year old Dangriga based businessman Ernesto Castillo was heading south but as he was making the curve just before the Caves Branch bridge, Castillo lost control of his Toyota Hilux and collided head on into an ambulance. Castillo suffered massive head and body injuries and died at the scene. The ambulance’s patient escaped unhurt while driver Gilbert Parham and his other three passengers sustained minor injuries. Coincidentally, Parham is married to the deceased Ernesto Castillo’s sister. The crash has crippled emergency medical service in Dangriga as in October, the hospital’s brand new ambulance was put out of commission after it crashed into a cow. The institution is temporarily relying on the use of an ambulance from Independence Village until a permanent replacement is acquired.
The weekend’s other traffic fatalities occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning in Orange Walk Town. Officers say around two-thirty, they were called out to the corner of Otro Benque Road and Main Street where they saw that a red Ford Ranger had crashed into the lower flat of a home. Under the truck, lay the body of forty-two year old Cyril Thompson. A short distance away, police discovered Thompson’s common-law wife, fifty-year old Margaret Hyde. Both victims were declared dead on arrival at the Northern Regional Hospital. Investigations have since revealed that the truck’s driver, twenty five year old Jarvin Torres had in fact been heading to the hospital when he knocked down the two pedestrians. Information to News Five is that Torres, a teacher at a school in Belmopan, had been socializing with friends when a fight broke out. Someone was stabbed and even though he had been drinking, Torres offered to drive the man to the hospital. Torres is tonight out on bail of seven thousand dollars as he was charged today with two counts each of Manslaughter by Negligence, Causing Death by Careless Conduct and Driving Without Due Care and Attention.
