Last night, we told you about the 3 vehicle collision at the Airport Junction in Ladyville. It’s a location that has seen countless accidents, and tonight, this deadly stretch of road has claimed another life.

As we reported, a 10 wheeler dump truck slammed into a Jeep Cherokee, and plowed into the North Gas Station.   In the process, they ran over a young woman waiting for the bus.  She died from her injuries around midnight. 

Our news team has been following the story since yesterday evening, and Daniel Ortiz reports:

Surveillance footage from the area shows 2 buses passing by the North Gas Station, and a vehicle parked off the road to the left.

You’ll notice this vehicle that just pulled off the highway to the right - it’s an illegal stop - which plays a huge role in this fatal accident.

A few seconds later, a Jeep Grand Cherokee approaches the gas station to turn - and the driver slows down in the southbound lane to make a left turn - also illegal. 

The law states that any driver changing lanes must give way to both lanes of traffic - meaning the driver in this case should pull over to the shoulder, clear traffic in both lanes, and then turn:

But, a car is already parked on the right shoulder, blocking the jeep from pulling off - so it’s stuck there between lanes, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear, and blocking the highway. 

That’s when you see this dump truck approaching them in the right lane, and it is clear to see that the truck driver does not have anywhere to go to dodge the two vehicles blocking the road.

The truck then rams into the Jeep Cherokee, and the impact sends them barreling across the highway, into the compound of North Gas Station, where they both slammed into another parked vehicle, causing three vehicle pile-up.

The vehicles come to a stop mere meters away from the gas station’s fuel pumps, which could have been catastrophic.

But, it is terrible enough because 22 year-old Marcia Lopez, a resident of San Pablo Village, was standing on the side of the highway near the gas station, waiting for a bus to go home. She was hit by 1 of the 3 vehicles, and she suffered massive injuries to her right lower leg, and her head.

She passed away at the hospital last night at around 11:30 after clinging to life for several hours.

We spoke with Errol Garbutt, the driver the dump truck, and he says that he doesn’t think he is to be blamed for this tragedy.

Errol Garbutt - Truck Driver
"I don’t feel like it’s my fault. I did - the only thing I could have done, is hit the other vehicle that was parked off the road, and then, that would have been my fault. So, I held the highway lane; he was in it, and this is what happened."

He also recounted the accident from his perspective

Errol Garbutt
"I was on my last load, probably a little bit after 5, probably 10 past, on my way to the marina down the road, a bit, to deliver my last load. Almost in front here, the driver of this jeep just came to a stop in front of my truck, and I am load so. I sounded the horn, and he looked back at me in the mirror, and I just held the horn and tried to stop. But, these trucks don’t stop on a dime."

"When my truck hit him, it looked like he - I tried to avoid him, I got on - as much to the side as I really could. So what really hit him is the front here and my wheel. So, he caught the wheel, and started turning my steering. I couldn’t hold it. It almost broke my hand trying to hold the steering wheel. So, my truck started to come across the road. There is traffic coming. I don’t know how we didn’t hit any more cars that were coming this way, because there was a line. My lane didn’t have anything but him in it. My lane was clear. The only lane that was busy was the lane coming from Belize City. So, he gets hocked up on the front of the truck, and he turned into like a crash bar in front of my truck. So, he actually entered in here before me, and eventually ended up hitting this car, and ended up here."

"The driver had space to move and get to the side. That’s why I held the horn because I couldn’t do anything else but hold the horn, hold my breaks and hope that I stop before something like this happened."

Reporter
"Sir is it a situation where this driver was trying to come off the road or something, and improperly stopped in front of you?"

Errol Garbutt
"I guess he was either trying to go into Sky’s Restaurant or this gas station, but, he just stopped, and his response to me when I asked them why you didn’t move out of the way, is because traffic was coming. But, if you notice out there, there is a double line, and that double line has a meaning. It’s not there to be pretty. It’s there because you shouldn’t cross."

The official police report identifies the driver of the silver Jeep Cherokee as 38 year-old Walter McCullock, a welder from Ladyville. Both McCullock and 31 year-old Errol Garbutt, who you saw in our story, were served with notices of intended prosecution, and urine samples were obtained from both.