7 News Belize

Should Police Have Done More?
posted (November 21, 2017)
And - as Courtney mentioned in her story - there was another vehicle that also slipped off that very same St. Margaret's bridge this weekend. That accident actually happened on Friday night at 7:00 - when, according to reports, this Ford Pickup was the first to tumble off the bridge. We have to say according to reports, because, incredibly, 96 hours after it happened, Belmopan police still cannot produce a report of that accident.

So, then, the first accident was Friday night - which was non-fatal, and the second accident was Saturday night, which had one fatality, and then on Sunday during the day, the triple fatality. So why didn't Belmopan police or the Ministry of works do something pro-active?

Commander of Operations ACP Edward Broaster told the media today that they were counting on traffic stops in Dangriga:

ACP Edward Broaster, Commander - Operations
"Well our thing would not have been on the hummingbird highway per se it would have been in the area of Dangriga. And I'm sure the Dangriga formation had put things in place to mitigate any drunken drivers, being, entering on the road."

Luis Wade, Plus TV
"I travelled the highway and there was not one single police vehicle or officer on the Entire highway on the 18th, day or in the night. Where would they have been?"

ACP Edward Broaster, Commander - Operations
"I cannot argue with what you saw, because what you saw, you saw. But I'm sure we had patrols from the special patrol unit on the highway."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Sir, it seems like a gross dereliction of duty on behalf of the Ministry of Works and of the Belmopan Police, that, ok, one vehicle falls off the bridge Friday night: bad. A second falls off Saturday, that's fatal. That's awful. A third falls of fun Sunday and at no point is a caution guard put there, is a police officer put there, something put in place to say, listen we have an emergency crisis situation at this very dangerous bridge, it is manifestly dangerous, it has no border, no railing. And it's a one way bridge on a two way road. Why did not law enforcement react in a proactive way to pre-empt further loss of life?"

ACP Edward Broaster, Commander - Operations
"I cannot speak for the ministry of works, Jules. But, like you said the bridge been that way for a while and we haven't been having any accidents in that area. It's just unfortunately that, it so happened that this weekend, we had two, you're saying three."

Luis Wade, PLUS TV
"In a way are you telling is that you are not aware of a third vehicle falling off the bridge, on Friday night. The police is not aware of a third accident?"

ACP Edward Broaster, Commander - Operations
"I am not telling you that the police is not aware. I am telling you that I do not have that information."

The Regional Commander for the South, Senior Superintendent Alford Grinage confirmed that his police did traffic operations on the 17, 18, and 19th during which time they gave out 63 tickets for violations. He said that also had highway patrols covering his zone which ends at mile 30 on the Hummingbird. The fatal accidents happened at mile 32 - which falls within the western zone. He says there were no accidents in the southern zone this weekend.

So while Southern police did their work, what about the Ministry of Works - where were they? And what will they do to fix the bridge? Well, we've been calling their office from 8:00 this morning to speak with the CEO, Errol Gentle but he's either busy or in meeting, but always unavailable. The Chief Engineer who we met at the bridge declined comment.

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