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Warden Pinned By Bus At Cave's Branch
posted (August 8, 2013)
Tonight, a Park Ranger from the Nohoch Che'en National Park, better known as Caves Branch Outpost, is at the Belmopan Hospital recovering from injuries he received this morning when a tour bus ran over him at the park's entrance.

Police have not released the official details, but 7News has been informed that at around 9:30 this morning the ranger went to manage the entrance of the park, which had a checkpoint for all vehicles to stop. The ranger was caught off-guard when the bus didn't stop, hit him, and then dragged him a few yards under the bus.

One of the eyewitnesses was Lincoln Gordon, who is owner of Caves Branch River Restaurant and Bar, located inside the national park. He told us how the entire situation unfolded, and how he rushed into to help the injured ranger:

Lincoln Gordon - Eyewitness
"We saw the bus coming down but when the busses come down they normally stop over there because the ranger has to go on the bus to check how many people are on the bus so they can mark it down. I notice that as the bus was coming down, the ranger was passing in front of the bus - I probably thought that he thought that the bus would have stopped but the bus just ran right through, it hit him, hit the barrier and then the bus dragged him for five yards under the bus. When we saw it we ran over here and the bus came to a complete stop and we had to drag the guy from under the bus. I spoke to someone over there and he said that the driver told him that at the point of stopping - the brakes failed so he was unable to stop the bus. Most of his injuries were from his hip go down, I think that just from the way we had to pick him up, because I was the one that took him to the hospital - I think that he's going to have some major injury from the hip go down. I could have gotten him to the hospital earlier but the road is so terrible, I had to creep 6 or 7 miles before I could have picked up a good speed so I could have taken to the hospital as quickly as possible. "

Daniel Ortiz
"If it was a life and death situation, it could have been quite different."

Lincoln Gordon
"If it was a life and death situation, that guy would have definitely died."

According to Gordon, the road to the national park is desperate need of repairs. We also spoke to the Police Press Officer, who told us that the ranger suffered minor injuries.

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