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The stretch of the Northern Highway between the Haulover Bridge and the International Airport is known to be especially perilous: it’s full of sharp turns, it’s highly trafficked and it runs parallel to a river. Add to that one more recent complication: some spots are covered in loose gravel...and you’ve got a highway that requires extreme caution.

Odway Flowers and Kendra Smith Flowers – who were married in May and live in Los Lagos and use the road everyday but somehow fell victim to one of the its many perils yesterday morning when they were headed into Belize City. Odway Flowers, who was driving, lost control of their Toyota Four-Runner, veered violently off the highway and plunged into the river. Shortly after, only the 33 year old Flowers re-surfaced his 31 year old wife Kendra Smith Flowers drowned in the vehicle.

It is a public tragedy, hundreds passed by the accident scene yesterday and hundreds stopped to see what was happening as the scene it created a commotion for hours on the Northern Highway yesterday. But what really happened inside the car that caused it to go flying off the road, and why couldn’t Kendra Smith Flowers be saved? Here’s the story.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
When 7News arrived on the scene after 11:00, divers were going into the water and the Coast Guard was in position. The search would fan out from here – this area of trampled bush between mile 6 and 7 where the Toyota Four Runner went hurtling off the highway into the river.

At that time Steffi Lupp, a Belize City resident and former emergency care worker was on her way back from the Philip Goldson International Airport sometime after ten on Sunday morning. Lupp says as she came around the bend on the highway, that is when she saw the vehicle in the water going under.

Steffi Lupp, Tried to save Kendra Smith Flowers
“I saw the top of the car, it was just going under the water. I stopped immediately and then I saw the driver coming out and up to the surface but he couldn’t swim. He tried hard to swim and so I jumped in, I wanted to help him to get out but other people threw a rope in and so he could pull on it and he could get out of the water.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“At what point did you find out that there was someone else trapped inside the vehicle?”

Steffi Lupp,
“It was him. I asked him and he said, ‘my wife, my wife, she is in the car and she couldn’t get out and she has her seatbelt on.’ And so I didn’t think, I jumped in and for me, I am a good swimmer, and I tried to dive but I learnt very fast it was not possible because the current was so high and it pulled me away and the water was so dark. I had no chance.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“Did you see the vehicle or was there absolutely no visibility?”

Steffi Lupp,
“I couldn’t see the vehicle because the water was very very dark and when I went down, after a short while I noticed the current was so high and pulled me away so I couldn’t go really down. I tried it so many times and it and you see the bubbles under water and you know there is a person in the car, it is horrible.”

The bubbles lasted for some thirty minutes and then they stopped. Based on where Kendra Smith Flowers body was found at the rear of the vehicle, it suggests she did manage to unbuckle her seatbelt and tried to get out but there was no way out and she drowned.

Jacqueline Godwin,
“Steffi you put your own life at great risk jumping into that river. Why did you do it?”

Steffi Lupp,
“To help. For me it is novel. For me it is novel. If somebody needs my help I do it.”

Steffi says the husband was in a state of shock and great distress telling her that he and his wife had just gotten married in May.

Steffi Lupp,
“Oh sure he was so in shock. Everybody was in shock but he was totally in shock. I didn’t know how deep the river is and I didn’t expect that the currents would be so strong. So that if you go down, the water blocks the door and you can’t open the door. Sometimes you have a chance, sometimes I try. If you don’t try, then there is no chance.”

With the Coast Guard on standby the divers did their best but visibility was poor due to the turbid state of the water. The divers also had to contend with heavy currents across the wide and deep river. How deep? As much as 30 feet in this area. And because they could neither easily navigate nor see anything underwater – for over an hour – the search was lead by this team from Belize River Lodge who trawled the river bottom with a rope tied to an anchor. It wasn’t the most efficient way to find a submerged vehicle, but with the resources at hand, it was the only choice.

And at about one – over three hours after the vehicle had gone into the water - the divers and a new boat doing the same job found it the vehicle about 25 feet from where it plunged off the highway. It was lying on the river bottom upside down at a depth of 23 feet.

When the SUV was pulled out by a crane, the passenger, 30 year old Kendra Smith Flowers was dead in the backseat – she had apparently drowned. Kendra Smith Flowers’ family declined comment.

Police in their report would only say that he lost control of the Toyota Four Runner but reports from the scene are that the husband commented that he and his wife were arguing at the time and Kendra allegedly grabbed hold of the steering wheel that caused the Odway to lose control and the vehicle went into the water.

7News understands that the police had to come to the rescue of Odway Flowers as he stood on the highway because he was beaten by family members of the victim.

Kendra Smith Flowers who had been married for only four months was known as a very friendly person who recently earned her bachelors degree in December and up until the time of her untimely death she was working as an auditor at the Atlantic Bank. She would have turned thirty two on November twenty sixth. Reporting for 7News, Jacqueline Godwin.

As noted in the story the family had no comment. Same for Odway Flowers, who declined an interview. But we can tell you that they are greatly displeased with Odway Flowers – whom, we gather, they blame for their sister’s death. According to a Smith family member, on Sundays Kendra Smith Flowers would regularly come down to the city to have breakfast with her mother and spend the rest of the day with the family while Flowers would go spend time with his family. They believe that’s where the couple was heading when the accident occurred. But what happened inside the vehicle to cause the accident? Well, only two people know that, one of them is the deceased and the other, her husband, is not talking.