Hit and run victim asks driver to come forward

Are you familiar with the phrase: “adding insult to injury?” Well, it’s a perfect description of what happened to one unfortunate Belize City resident last week. I spoke to the young man this morning.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
In 2005 eighteen year old Tyrone Teck graduated from the Tubal Trade and Vocational Institution and up until two weeks ago he was working with his peers as a member of the Belize Family Life Association Youth Group. Today he is home recuperating … the victim of a hit and run accident.

Tyrone Teck, Victim, Hit/Run
?The speed the vehicle was coming; I could not even move. I just knew that I was going to get knocked. That is how fast the vehicle was coming. When the vehicle knocked me I just flipped in the sky. I thought that when I hit the ground I would be dead.?

On Saturday, July fifteenth sometime after mid-day Teck was slowly riding his bicycle on Raccoon Street about to cross the intersection of Currasow Street when he was hit. A car described as a small red four door vehicle with tinted windows and a sun roof came speeding up Currasow Street and ran the stop sign. Teck lay on the ground bleeding profusely from two deep wounds on the left side of his head, not to mention a broken left ankle. The driver just sped off leaving Teck in shock and pain.

Tyrone Teck
?My head hit the pavement so hard, that they took splinter of cement out of my eye and out of my neck.?

Teck says if it was not for the quick thinking of a nurse and a mechanic in the area he believes he would have bled to death.

Tyrone Teck
?Lot of people were out there but nobody wanted to touch me, because nobody knew how to help. But after a while a nurse and a mechanic got a shirt and managed to stop the blood in my head.?

Teck was taken by ambulance to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital and was released on Wednesday. He continues to suffer from body pain, headaches and dizzy spells.

Glenda Teck, Mother
?It is not an easy thing to watch your child suffer. I try the best I could to help him around.?

Thirty-nine year old Glenda Teck cannot understand why the driver did not stop to help her son.

Glenda Teck
?The driver doesn?t know that I am a humble person. I accept that an accident can happen, but how can you leave a person to bleed to death.?

Glenda, who is celebrating her birthday today, says the best gift she would like to have is a phone call from the driver. Teck says she is also not happy with the way the police have been handling the investigation. She says they have the vehicle?s license plate number and promised that they would have the person responsible in custody.

Glenda Teck
?The police told me that by Sunday they would have made an arrest. I have not seen him since. I went to the station twice and they told me to have my son come in and give a statement. I told them that it is hard for my son to go there. He is in pain and I don?t have time to be up and down at Police Station. For my part, I say that I can leave everything to God, because he will make sure that justice is done you.?

But the police say they have been pursuing the case.

A.S.P. Aaron Guzman, O.C. Police Traffic Branch
?It is active. We have found out the licenses plate of the car and we have a proper description. We believe we know who the car is registered to. That registered owner will be interviewed and then we take the investigation from there.?

News Five understands that the car is the property of a Belize City businessman but that he has since told authorities he was not the driver because his vehicle was stolen prior to the time of the accident. But the owner never reported any theft and the police are taking a closer look.

A.S.P. Aaron Guzman
?At this stage we do not know the identity of the driver of the vehicle at time of the alleged incident. We would hope though that other members of the public, who may have seen the driver at the time, to come forward and give a statement, to assist us in concluding this investigation and forwarding a charge to whoever is concerned.?

Teck, who is recuperating at home, manages to get around with the help of a wheelchair, but it has not been easy.

Tyrone Teck
?I just have to say to the driver: you know you did something wrong and instead a run from it and get yourself in more problems to just admit to your mistake. I really no hold nothing against the man to knock me down. It is the fact that he did not take me to hospital that is the only thing that really hurt me. I no really worry that he knock me down, because accidents happen. But the fact that the man left me down there to dead is the part that hurts me.?

Again, Teck would like to thank the nurse and mechanic who came to his aid.