Police Minister John Saldivar's driver has been arrested and charged for knocking down a man in Camalote on Saturday night. Around 8:00, the driver, Orlando Castillo was heading to Belmopan in his Volkswagen when he hit Vallan Paul Cucul between mile 50 and 51. Castillo said that Cucul veered onto the road on his bicycle and he couldn't avoid hitting him. Cucul died on the spot. Well, today 6 charges were brought against Castillo at the Magistrates Court in Belmopan. We wondered- was there any special treatment afforded to Castillo? - After all he is the police minister's long time driver. OC Howell Gillett today assured us that everything was done to maintain transparency in this case.
Supt. Howell Gillett, OC, Belmopan Police
"On Saturday that passed which was the 13th of June, we had an accident in the Camalote area to be specific between miles 50 and 51. Belmopan police responded upon being informed and on the scene we found a male Hispanic person with injures to his body. The person was immediately taken to the Western Regional Hospital where the body was pronounced dead on arrival. We did some preliminary work and on Saturday night we arrested Mister Orlando Castillo. He is a driver for the Ministry of National Security. He was brought into our custody on Sunday evening we charged him for a number of offences related the traffic accident. The vehicle that he was driving at the time was a grey Jetta car belonging to the Ministry also. He was charged for manslaughter by negligence causing death 
by careless conduct, drove motor vehicle without due care and attention and fail to stop and render aid, fail to report an accident, fail to provide specimen meaning blood or urine sample. What the investigation is showing thus far is that Mister Castillo was travelling from a West to East direction meaning coming towards Belmopan from San Ignacio direction when he encountered somebody who according to him suddenly came onto the Highway from the shoulder of the road. He tried but couldn't avoid to hit this person. The person received head and body injuries which caused his death. He was brought into custody upon Saturday night following the accident and he was maintained at the police cell block until this morning when he was taken to court. There were no special treatment afforded to him."
Castillo was offered bail of $8,000 and his case has been adjourned until September 7th. Castillo must surrender all his travel documents and report to the police station every Thursday.
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