Two elderly personskilled in separate RTAs

Black Immigrant Daily News

80-year-old Santa Chun died after being knocked down on the Valley of Peace Road, and 69-year-old Crispín Moreno Francisco was hit by a Toyota Ranger pickup truck in Carmelita Village while crossing the Philip Goldson Highway.

by Charles Gladden

VALLEY OF PEACE, Cayo District, Mon. June 4, 2022

Over the weekend, two elderly persons died as a result of road traffic accidents. The first fatal accident, which claimed the life of 80-year-old Santa Chun, occurred on Friday, July 1, while  Chun was walking on the side of the highway in the Valley of Peace, Cayo District, after buying tortillas. The other accident took place on Sunday, July 3, in Carmelita Village, Orange Walk District, where 69-year-old Crispin Moreno Francisco was killed instantly when he was hit by a pickup truck while crossing the Philip Goldson Highway.

According to an initial police report, the driver of the pickup which hit Chun in Cayo, 43-year-old Jesus Felipe Galdamez, a vendor, told police that at around 7:40 p.m. on Friday night he was traveling in his pickup truck in the direction of Valley of Peace as he headed to Belmopan when he suddenly saw Chun walking on the side of the highway. Galdamez said he tried to swerve to avoid hitting Chun but to no avail. He stopped and assisted Chun by transporting her to the Western Regional Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries sometime after 11:00 p.m. that night.

Since then, police have detained and charged Galdamez with manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, and driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention.

Galdamez voluntarily gave urine samples to the police, so he did not receive a NIP (Notice or Intended Prosecution).

The family of Chun is now urging that speed bumps be placed in the village to prevent speeding on the highway, which could cause another family to lose a loved one.

The second fatal traffic accident, which occurred in Carmelita Village, took the life of 69-year-old CrispínMoreno Francisco, who was fatally hit by a Toyota Ranger pickup truck while crossing the Philip Goldson Highway.

Police arrived at the scene around 7:15 p.m., and were told by the driver of the Toyota Ranger pickup truck, CadieRhaburn, who hit Moreno Francisco, that he was traveling along the highway and was approaching a Chinese store when he saw Moreno Francisco crossing the highway hurriedly and tried to avoid hitting Moreno Francisco but failed to do so.

Moreno Francisco was flung a distance away due to the impact of the hit and died instantly when he landed on the pavement.

Jamie Moreno Francisco, a son of the deceased, has said that his father would often cross the road by himself in order to get to the store and he would often advise him to be careful of the traffic, as his father is a stroke survivor.

“Sometimes when he wants to walk around to go to the shop to buy something he would normally cross, or if I’m around I’ll do the errand for him, because you know the traffic is really high, and you got drivers who are driving, but they don’t drive with due care and attention… I always told him, ‘Dad, one of these days you need to watch the road because the road is not like what you think. And the situation that you will be in, you won’t be able to make it like us who have two better feet’,” said the grieving son.

“I used to come down every weekend or every two weeks to watch him, treat him the best although we went through our ups and down, but we’ll leave it in God’s hands, because he knows what he’s doing. But he was good, we treat him [well]. I love him because he’s my flesh and blood and the only thing you can do is to come together and make sure everything is accomplished in the proper way,” he continued.

Moreno Francisco believes that a speed bump should be installed in the area to avoid more accidents due to the lack of lights in the area.

“I think the people who are in charge of the highway are supposed to do is to try to make a bump in this area, because normally when the night comes, it is very dark; that’s the error. But normally, sometimes people see things at the moment, but when they put on their high beam, and that’s when they say sorry, because it’s too late,” he said.

Police have detained Rhaburn, and charges are currently pending.

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