Tonight, PUP party leader John Briceno is at the Northern Medical Plaza in Orange Walk recovering from minor injuries he received in this morning's Philp Goldson Highway accident. It sent waves of panic on social media after it happened. Although Briceno's vehicle was totaled, he and his driver, Edwin Hill survived the impact. Based on the police report, Mervin Armstrong, the driver of a green Toyota Rav4 was heading towards Orange Walk Town when a pickup truck traveling in the same direction suddenly slowed down but did not indicate direction causing the driver of the Rav4 to apply brakes and slow down. However, Nadiel Cajun, who was driving a Blue Bird Albion bus traveling behind the Rav 4 failed to stop in time and collided into the rear of the Rav 4. This is where Briceno's Prado comes in. Briceno's driver Edwin Hill traveling in the opposite direction, swerved off the highway to avoid a collision. The Prado overturned several times causing Briceno to receive injuries to the left side of head, neck, and shoulder. While Hill complained of pain to the left side of the chest. Courtney Weatherburne traveled up north and has the story.
Voice of: Eyewitness
"All I heard was a bang. I thought it was a blow-out or something, then I heard tyres like they were trying to grab brakes or something and after that you heard loud bang. When I came out I saw a green vehicle in the bush across from us, the bus on the road and further down more another vehicle that turned over."
Courtney Weatherburne reporting
That vehicle that flipped was PUP party leader John Briceno's Toyota Prado. The man with the white blood stained shirt in this picture is Briceno's driver, Edwin Hill. This morning around 9:45, Hill was driving Briceno to Belize City when Hill turned unto the side of the road to avoid an accident at mile 37 on the Philip Goldson Highway near Rhaburn Ridge. Fortunately, Briceno and his driver only received minor injuries.
Stuart Leslie, Chief of Staff, PUP Party Leader
"As far as we understand a bus was overtaking another vehicle and they crossed into the lane where the party leader and his driver was heading towards Belize City. To avoid an accident, the party leader's driver tried to move as far to the edge of the road and that as where the loose gravel and the vehicle slipped several times. The party leader has received cut to his head, he had to have stiches in his head. we are running all the tests right now. Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez who is the doctor in charge has told me that the party leader should have a full recovery. So that's the best news that we have so far and what they have seen from all the tests shows that there is nothing major or anything he will have stiffness and bruises, but those are things they can deal with. With respect to his driver Mr. Hill, he received some injuries to his chest and so on from the steering wheel, but again, they are saying everything looks clear. Both of them are the hospital here. They will remain here until the doctors release them, but everybody feels confident that he is going to have a full recovery as well as Mr. Hill. Edwin Hill has been driving the party leader for 11 years, he is a very experience seasoned well-trained driver, he is trained in defensive driving by the BDF, he was also trained by the special branch unit of the police in driving the party leader. He is very good at defensive driving. We have every confidence that Edwin would have taken every precaution in trying to avoid death of anyone including the party leader. And so I believe because of his skilful driving that he was able to come out of this without any serious injury. We were very concerned because the vehicle flipped several times, because of the loose gravel on the side of the road and he had to accelerate to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle and so yes the doctor said to me that John Briceno is a lucky man. They are both lucky people, because of the number of times the vehicle flipped. The vehicle is completely damaged, but thank God everybody is fine, no one was seriously injured to the point where we feel that they will not be able to recover."
It was quite a scare for Briceno, Hill and Belizeans in general who were concerned about the party leader's condition.
Stuart Leslie, Chief of Staff, PUP Party Leader
"The party leader and his family and Mr. Hill and his family would like to thank all those who called and checked in and so on."
While Briceno will spend the night in the hospital, Hill has been released. According to Leslie, Briceno was wearing his seat belt as well as the neck guard he usually uses for a neck injury he sustained some time ago.
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