And while the fact of 7 dead in one accident is hard to recover from, there are lingering questions about whether maybe one more life could have been saved on the road if the ambulances weren't getting blocked on the highway by drivers who refused to pull over.
Commissioner of Police Chester Williams acknowledged the chaos and road blockage in the aftermath of the Western Highway accident and also proposed the development of an accident response plan..
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It is in an SI that drivers are to heed to the sirens of fire, ambulance and police when it is heard and the truth is as you rightly said, we have a difficulty in Belize where drivers hear the police siren and the ambulance siren or fire siren and instead of giving way they want to race in front of these emergency vehicles and so it is something we have to look at in terms of enforcing and again having experienced this mass casualty on the George Price Highway, we also need to see how we can put together a plan to deal with incidences of that nature, we have not had one like that in quite some time I think over 15 years ago there was one with a Kia , pickup truck or something so it is not something that occurs frequently but we do need to put together a plan that will include emergency and fire."
"And I think that what we need to do with traffic is to ensure that when we have these incidences, we have a free flow leading up to where these vehicles are so that the ambulance can drive all the way without any obstruction."
Email
Print