We turn now to the 3 fatal traffic accidents which happened only hours of each other.
This morning, at around 6:00, 23 year-old Marlena Mortis, a resident of Dolphin Drive, which is located the in Buttonwood Bay Area of Belize City, was attempting to cross the Philip Goldson Highway, when she was knocked down by oncoming traffic.
Now, commuters who regularly travel the Highway know that the newly repaired road comes with a new feature. Barriers that have been set up to partition off the road into several lanes. These barriers also prevent pedestrian road crossings.
And rather than walking the entire distance it would take to get to a pedestrian ramp, some persons simply jump over these barriers and attempt to cross the road by dodging the traffic. That's exactly what Mortis attempted to do, and in the process, she was hit by a driver who was heading to Belize City.
Police told us more today:
ASP Alejandro Cowo
"This morning just about 6:30am, police visited an area between 2.5-3 miles Philip Goldson Highway just almost in front of DK Supermarket, where they saw the lifeless body of a female who was identified as Marlena Mortis, 23 years old of 6077 Dolphin Drive. What police gathered so far is that the deceased was attempting to jump over the barrier and while she was doing so, they had two vehicles that were coming towards Belize City and she end up landing herself on top of one of the vehicles where she was hit and received several injuries to her body. The vehicle stopped at a distance, the driver came out and at this moment he is detained."
Reporter
"The safety concerns were brought to light because of this particular situation is that those barriers that ae now a part of the Philip Goldson Highway prevents pedestrians from crossing the road properly. Is that a situation that police has taken note of?"
ASP Alejandro Cowo
"It's a concern and the barriers were placed for a reason and if you see that one of them-we call it the slower lane than the other one. She is not the first person that has jumped that barrier. There are several persons even though they know the risk that they are running, they still go ahead and jump it whilst traffic is coming. We would advise persons to be careful and desist from jumping the barriers because sometimes they are not paying attention and they do not know what is coming in front of them."
We also got a chance to speak with one of Elena Mortis' neighbors, and she told us more about Mortis. She also said she too is one of those pedestrians who jump over the new barriers on the newly repaired highway. She explained why:
Myrl Bowden, Neighbor of Deceased
"She was a nice young lady, we always talk and sometimes I held her child. But before Christmas I haven't seen her, because she lives in Placencia, so when I came out here this morning and I saw police took off the plastic off her face for me to see - they didn't want me to take it off, because I felt like it was someone I knew. It was sad. It's very hard."
Reporter
"You live right around the corner, do you also illegally run across the road to DK?"
Myrl Bowden, Neighbor of Deceased
"I run and jump over all those things like a man to go to buy at the shop, every day."
Reporter
"Is it a concern for you that you are putting your life at risk?"
Myrl Bowden, Neighbor of Deceased
"I know I am putting my life at risk. One day a taxi man told me to stop do that and just go around. We have to go way at Brodies to go and come and then walk on the sidewalk to go to DK."
Reporter
"Do you want the ministry of works to put some pedestrian crossing there?"
Myrl Bowden, Neighbor of Deceased
"Yes, I want they do it very fast too, because children passed over there too. Sometimes their mother back them over the thing there to go catch the bus to go to school. So we need to have them move all of those things and fix the road for us."
And while it is a very serious concern, City Hall can't do anything about it, because the Ministry of Works is responsible for all highways. The City Council said it has expressed those same safety concerns to the Ministry of Works.
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