Accident in Placencia kills 3

Andrew Faber

Three persons died in a horrible traffic accident in the south just after noon today. Belize City Councilor Andrew Faber, the younger brother of Education Minister Patrick Faber, as well as two female passengers who were traveling with him inside his Mitsubishi pickup truck, perished in a traffic mishap along the Placencia Road.  Around twelve-thirty p.m. the trio; twenty-nine year old Faber, twenty-three year old Gianni Taylor and twenty-six year old Virginia Ozeata, was heading towards the Southern Highway en route to Belize City when upon reaching between miles four and five Faber lost control of the vehicle.

Gianni Taylor

It skidded and careened off the road before overturning in a nearby ditch where it is presumed that they drowned after being trapped inside the upturned pickup.  It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that another motorist came across the accident but by then it was already too late.  Faber, who was scheduled to depart the country in October to pursue further studies abroad, was returning from an overnight trip to the peninsula with Taylor, who was four months pregnant, and Ozeata, who was visiting from the United States, when the incident took place.  Responding to the scene of the accident was Placencia Village Council Chairman, Charles Leslie Jr.

Charles Leslie Jr., Chairperson, Placencia Village Council

“I received information from the PPD, the Placencia Police Department that there was an accident on the road just above the shrimp farm coming into Placencia.  It would be around, between mile two and three and I personally visited the site.  Upon visiting the site [they had] already moved the bodies.  There were definitely three fatalities and the automobile, obviously it seemed to have flipped over into the water on the side of the road and I can’t say what caused the fatality but I’m assuming that they were trapped in the vehicle and they either drowned or suffered other bodily injuries that caused their deaths.”

Isani Cayetano

“Can you describe to us what kind of vehicle they were traveling in?”

Charles Leslie Jr.

Charles Leslie Jr.

“It was a Mitsubishi Montero, four-door, manual transmission vehicle.”

Isani Cayetano

“And what were the extent of the damages to the vehicle?”

Charles Leslie Jr.

“To be honest the vehicle didn’t suffer extensive damage.  It only had damage to the left driver’s side of the vehicle.  It suffered a cave-in on the roof obviously from the flipping of the vehicle on the road.  But other than that it didn’t suffer any other major damages to the automobile.”

Isani Cayetano

“What are the weather conditions down in Placencia at the moment?  I know here in Belize City it’s been raining for the past two days.  What has the weather been like down there?”

Charles Leslie Jr.

“Well we experienced heavy rains last night and this morning it wasn’t as heavy and it [subsided a bit] this afternoon which I‘m assuming that’s when the accident took place, probably around twelve o’clock, between twelve and twelve-thirty.  We were experiencing hardly any rain but at the particular portion of the road that the accident took place, that portion of the road had water covering the road.  So my assumption is that they hit the water and the automobile hydroplaned and then flipped over into the side of the road which was flooded and it stayed there for a period of between ten to fifteen minutes before someone came upon the accident and by that time the people in the automobile were already deceased.”

Isani Cayetano

“What was the response [like] from the police down in Placencia?  I know you mentioned they were the ones whom you confirmed with earlier that there were indeed fatalities as a result of the accident.  Did they tell you what their response to the scene was?”

Charles Leslie Jr.

“The police from Placencia Village and Independence Village responded to the scene of the accident promptly and I followed suit slightly thereafter and they cordoned off the portion of the road but by the time they received the report I would assume that already twenty minutes had passed and it took another ten to fifteen minutes for the police to get on site.  When I personally got there, there were ambulances already on the scene.  The bodies had already been removed from the vehicle and transported, I believe, to the Southern Regional Hospital.”