Police ready charges in Sept. 20 bus/truck crash

Like murders, traffic accidents seem to come in clusters … and this past week has seen one of the worst. Tonight there is a new fatal crash to report and an additional death from one that occurred yesterday. But we’ll lead our coverage with developments from the horrific collision that occurred on Independence Eve.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Two weeks after one of the worst fatal road traffic accidents in recent memory investigations by both the police and the transport department traffic reveal that it was truck driver thirty-four year old Michael Escalante who was at fault. This is a copy of an investigation report compiled by motor vehicle inspector and examiner Tirso Galvez who states that the accident which occurred at mile thirty-five occurred on a straight and very clear stretch of the western highway.

Galvez further reports that at the time the road was inspected it was dry and the sun was hot. There were no skid marks on either side of the highway, indicating that none of the drivers had the opportunity to apply brakes before the impact. Therefore Galvez is of the opinion that the accident could have been caused by improper overtaking on behalf of the truck driver who under estimated the speed of the bus coming in the opposite direction.

Ceford Myles, Survivor, Traffic Accident
“This guy actually leave his lane and I watch him all the way until I realized okay this guy is not taking left nor right, so I slid off my seat, between the seat and held my head. All I hear was bang, that was it.”

Sixty three year old Ceford Myles who was in the second seat on the right hand side of the bus says he does not know what caused the truck driver to come into their lane but there was no way the bus driver, Tyrone Gillett, could have avoided being hit but run off the road.

Ceford Myles
“I do not know who could have done anything different, I mean any experience driver. I do not know what else they could have done to avoid that, I don’t know because I have been driving since ‘62, since 1962.”

A total of six persons died. Four were in the truck; two in the bus, eighteen people were injured.

Ceford Myles
“I was being covered by people, I do not know by how much and who but I had to struggle my way through. They were the ones who hurt me, my neck, here and this but this is the one that is worse because they were all over me. I don’t know where they came from, so I shuffled myself through and I try to get through the back door but the sound of bawling and screaming and a young lady calling my name please come help me with my baby.”

Twenty-three year old hair dresser Tiffany Fortune was only four seats behind the bus driver but the only thing she can remember is waking up at Western Regional Hospital. Today she remains in the surgical ward at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital with a badly injured pelvis and hip along with facial and body wounds from which glass splinters are still being removed. Fortune says the last thing she remembers is that the bus had stopped to pick up two tourists by the Belize Zoo at mile twenty-nine. One of them would be killed in the crash.

Tiffany Fortune, Injured in Traffic Accident
“I wake up in the Belmopan hospital and they ask me if I know what happened and I tell them, no, and they tell me the bus weh I come inna just ketch inna wah accident and if I need to contact anybody.”

“My pelvis bone and my hip bone is dislocated. I will be left with a little ugly scar on my face. I have all these ugly stuff on my skin and my shoulder here.”

The Tragedy is the worst for National Transport Services Limited since it started providing service in 2002. According to the company’s operation manager, Phillip Jones, they have been assisting the injured passengers in need of medical attention.

Phillip Jones, Operations Manager, National Transport Services Limited
“I think I have covered almost everyone if not everyone and initially we are reaching out financially with the institutions which will be Karl Heusner and Universal. So far I believe up to today there are only two persons in the Karl Heusner remaining and one in the Universal Health Care.”

“I have made several calls over the radio to invite those who have been affected to come in to the office so that we can walk them through and let them know what is the procedure and what is the course to assist them as best as possible.”

But Fortune who is also a single mother of a one and two year old says, despite the promises, it seems as if her needs have been ignored like being transferred to Universal.

Tiffany Fortune
“He come and said that he was going to move me but I have not seen his face any at all.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“We are talking about Mister Phillip Jones?”

Tiffany Fortune
“Yes, he came by my bedside and tell me that he was going to help me financially with my kids and he was going to transfer me and he told my nurse out there and everybody else has been transferred and he left me one here and has not come back to see me.”

Phillip Jones
“I have explained to her that I am not a doctor that these things are technical. We are trying our best to try and to place her because she choose not to stay in that facility, she wants to move another one. So I told her that I am working my best to try and get that done before the week is out. We still have a day and a half so I am still working on that and hopefully by tomorrow she should be in the next institution that she requested.”

According to Jones they will not only provide Fortune with other financial assistance but the same courtesy is being extended to all the other victims and families who lost their loved ones in the crash.

Phillip Jones
“We want to make sure that first she is getting the best care possible and then from there we will try to reach out to her family and see how we can assist in any way. We have reached out to many families, we assist them financially. The ones who have lost we have assisted them with burial arrangements. At national we are trying our best to assist as best as possible.”

According to the police their investigations have also led them to believe that truck driver Michael Escalante is responsible for the accident but Escalante who was sent home has not been doing well as he has been in and out of consciousness. Authorities say when Escalante recovers form his injuries he will be charged with several offences including six counts of manslaughter by negligence.

The names of those persons who lost their lives in the September twentieth accident are forty-one year old Elvis Gillett of Orange Walk, twenty-three year old Gustavo Castillo of San Estevan Village, Thirty-five year old Emelita Gordon of Caye Caulker, sixty-one year old Cordilia Lamb of Belmopan, twenty-one year old Galindo Casado of Guatemala and U.S. tourist, twenty-six year old Kelly Marie Richendollar.