6 dead, 18 injured in W. Hway accident

Tonight six people are dead and eighteen others are injured following a traffic accident on the Western Highway. Just after eleven this morning, a National Transport bus carrying twenty-four passengers was bound for Belmopan when it collided with a delivery truck near mile thirty-five. While investigations into the cause of the crash have yet to be determined, it is clear that today’s accident will go down as one of the worst to occur on our highways.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
When News Five arrived at mile thirty-five, the police had already secured the crash site but there was no hiding the horrific scene. The extensively damaged bus was in the bushes on the right hand side of the road. The delivery truck was a short distance away. It appears when the two vehicles collided, the impact was great enough to propel the truck’s engine through the radiator to the left hand side of the highway.

The police then had the task of removing the bodies of the five victims who died at the scene. The two women and three men were transported to the Belmopan morgue.

A total of eighteen injured survivors were rushed to Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan where families and friends gathered to wait for news about their loved ones.

It was there News Five caught up with one of the Jimena Erskin who was on the bus at the time of the crash. Erskin, was travelling with her young daughter Kiana and says she was sitting on the left hand side of the bus, near the spot where the truck hit.

Jimena Erskin, Victim
“My baby mi the sleep an I mi the hold ah and I was just about to move fu go pan the next side cause the sun mi— we deh pan the left hand side and I mi gwen pan the right hand side and by the time I just the grab the bag from the bottom, I noh know exactly what happen, baby just gone. The seat mash into we. That’s all, I don’t know what happen, I noh know nothing. Then I start to ask fu help and that’s how my baby reach ya.”

The little girl suffered a head injury while her mother received cuts above the left eye and hand.

While the injured were being treated, Belmopan police remained at the crash site to begin official investigations into the cause of the accident. Fuel from the damaged vehicles made for slick conditions but reports to our newsroom are that minutes before the collision, rain had made the highway extremely dangerous.

According to National Transport Services Operation Manager Philip Jones, the bus departed from the Belize City Terminal at ten-thirty this morning and was enroute to Belmopan and San Ignacio.

Phillip Jones, Operations Manager, National Transport Services LTD.
“The driver called me after the incident to call 911 and see how best we can get someone out here to assist because he was in a serious accident. What he told me on the phone was that he was trying to avoid head on collision and he swerved off the road heading toward the western highway, towards Belmopan and he said that the truck hit him in the side, right. And they had vehicle that was passing and some good samaritans stop and assist and take some of the casualty to the Belmopan hospital.”

A crew from Southern Network Cable happened to be working the area of the crash. Roger Munoz says what caught his attention was a loud bang.

Roger Munoz, Witness
“Wa big bang and then I sih the truck spin and the bus pan the side, and then after that wa lotta people come outta the bus. Wa lotta injured people: wa lady with wa bone on her arm shooting out, wa next one with the eye messed up. A lotta damaged people.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“Do you know if the truck suffered a blow out?”

Roger Munoz
“No, no, no, I think it must— ih mi the rain you know, slight drizzle and I think it mussy slide off and that da when everything happen.”

According to the delivery truck’s owner German Vega, his driver Escalante and two sidemen were travelling north towards Belize City. The driver was seriously injured but the other two men, identified only as Castillo and Gillett are among the dead.

German Vega, Owner, German began and Sons LTD.
“And I find out that two of the side man he was bringing died on the spot and he was injured in Belmopan hospital.”

Traffic and transport officials remained at the scene for several hours in an attempt to ensure there are no other incidents at the crash site.

Of the eighteen injured passengers, a number are listed in serious and critical condition. Bus driver Troy Gillett and Michael Escalante who was behind the wheel of the delivery truck are alive but have been admitted to hospital.