7 News Belize

Big Bang By Bus On Boom Road
posted (January 22, 2015)
There was a road traffic accident on the Burrel Boom Road about 100 yards from the Belize Central Prison this morning. Fortunately, it was not fatal but it could have been serious because it involved a Ready-Call bus carrying 51 employees, which slammed into a dump truck. Courtney Weatherburne was on the scene.

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
These black trails of tire marks on the Hattieville road leads you to this morning's road traffic accident.

A few minutes after 9, this ready call bus crashed into the rear of this dump-truck, both vehicles ended up splayed across the highway.

But the vehicles were not the only things on opposite sides - both drivers had different accounts of the accident as well.

Claudio Morera, Bus Driver
"Well what I saw was that he was in front of me and he was swerving in a feeder road. He is a dump truck driver and I guess he was hauling material from the dump site. I was heading to Ready Call with 51 workers in the bus. He swerve in front of me and then I haul my brakes and to avoid a big accident, I hit him at the tail of the dump truck. He is in the wrong because he swerved right in front of me. He came over the other side of the road."

John Garbutt, Truck Driver
"I was coming towards the prison."

Courtney Weatherburne
"Do you remember what time was this?"

John Garbutt, Truck Driver
"I didn't check the time. Just about 50 yards from the prison, we have a sand pit where we load sand. I had my signal on, my feet on the brakes, I am already slowing down, saying that I am going to turn and that's when I felt the hit behind me from this bus. It spinned me around and threw me off the road. That is as far as I could explain to anybody. From looking at what I see on the road, he couldn't stop that bus and the owner should check that bus because it's negligent to the owners. I am all shaken up. I try to figure what went on, I got out my truck and I came and look around and most people were getting out of the bus. Everybody seemed okay. When I look in the bus, the driver was in his seat trying to fumble his way out. It seems like he was lock in some kind of way. You had two passengers on the front seat right hand side, they didn't move too much, so I was tripping on that. But after a while, the ambulance from the prison came and they got them out and they sit here for a while, so I knew it wasn't detrimental."

Evere Millian, Training Manager, Ready Call
"I was on my way to work in my own private vehicle and I got a call that the guys got into a traffic accident. According to my driver, he was coming on the highway and a dump truck was in the middle of the highway. He tried to avoid it as best as possible."

One of the two people on the bus who had to be taken the hospital was pregnant and simply suffered from the shock of the impact while the other passenger received a small cut wound to the face. Both drivers have been served with a notice of intended prosecution.

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