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Fatal Accident At Kendall Crossing Claims Two Lives
posted (March 28, 2011)
There was a fatal accident in the south on Saturday night. It happened when an ambulance toppled off the Kendal temporary Bridge - which is a one lane wooden structure spanning the Sittee river.

It happened sometime before 9:00 pm when 51 year old Ambulance Driver Ernesto Caliz was heading from the Punta Gorda Hospital to the Southern Regional Hospital with a nurse in the passenger seat and a pregnant woman on a stretcher laid out in the back.

Something went wrong and he plunged off the bridge into the river - causing his death and that of the nurse, Nigerian Madonna Anyanwu while his passenger, 32 year old Magdalena Choco survived.

We spoke to the man who got her out of the wrecked ambulance. Here's the story.

Jules Vasquez Reporting
At the Punta Gorda Hospital on Sunday they had a memorial up for nurse Madonna Anyanwu who worked at the facility until she died when the ambulance she was in toppled off the Kendall Bridge on Saturday night

Emerson Burke, Rescued Pregnant Woman From Ambulance
"They toppled off the bridge, Jules, and when I went onto the bridge and I look down and I realize it was a vehicle with its 4 wheel up. By that time another villager had reach the bank of the river and she was shouting that she heard someone from the vehicle, by that time I had realized that it was an ambulance on its top. Immediately my thought went on Mr. Caliz who is a personal friend of mine and whom I know to drive the ambulance for the Dangriga hospital and so we rush down there and immediately we got the persons. There was a pregnant woman who was trapped inside the ambulance for nearly 2 hours."

Jules Vasquez
"She was trapped in the vehicle in water? Standing on the top of the van because the van was flipped upside down so she was standing on the top in water but she couldn't open the door."

Emerson Burke, Rescued Pregnant Woman From Ambulance
"None at all. As a matter of fact she was holding on to some brace or some metal that was bolted on to the van itself. But she held on for 2 hours, Jules - full blown pregnancy."

Jules Vasquez
"Did she hear anything from the front?"

Emerson Burke, Rescued Pregnant Woman From Ambulance
"Yes she did tell me that what she heard was the bubbling of which she suspected ought to have been the struggle of either or both Mr. Caliz and the nurse's struggle to get loose. By that time we realized that the driver and the nurse were still in there. Our investigation revealed that both Mr. Caliz and the nurse was trapped inside hanging upside down with heads submerge under water, seatbelts keeping them intact. Attempts to release that hitch on the seatbelts were fruitless and so I had to run and get the machete from my truck and cut loose the belt. We released Mr. Caliz first being nearer to us, by that time I realize that both were deceased already and I proceeded to take the pregnant woman to Dangriga hospital. I will tell you first and foremost that she is a strong woman - strong and young, I think her name is Ms. Choco. Where the patient was at the back of the ambulance was a bit more elevated than where the driver was - naturally because of the weight of the engine and so the patient not being trapped had sufficient air above her in order to survive. According to the villagers - they heard the noise some two hours prior to me getting there. Unfortunately, again, no one came out to investigate."

Jules Vasquez
"How deep was the river?"

Emerson Burke, Rescued Pregnant Woman From Ambulance
"Not more than 4 feet Jules."

Jules Vasquez
"when you were able to go in the water went up to your chest."

Emerson Burke, Rescued Pregnant Woman From Ambulance
"I'm a tall guy so just above my waist. The river wasn't deep at all. I think being caught in that position upside down and of course your weight resting on that belt - unable to come up and unable to release it."

VOICE OF: Son Of Ernesto Caliz Sr
"What I think was the cause of death was - he was complaining from Thursday, he suffered from high blood pressure so he was complaining from headache from the high blood pressure and so probably what I think happen is that he probably block out or pass out at that time because there was no indication of speeding."

Caliz and Anyanwu become the fourth and fifth persons to die at the Kendall Crossing since the bridge was destroyed in the mighty floods of mid-2008. The first two were a Nigerian Couple in mid-2008 and then in September of that year Alpheus Pate died while being ferried across - and now these two deaths.

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