The stretch of road between miles two and three on the Northern Highway must be one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Belize. It has been the scene of a number of fatalities, and by all appearances Saturday could have witnessed a few more. But tonight, we are happy that the story is not how many died, because none did, but how they managed to survive. First we take you to the scene of the rescue effort as emergency teams worked feverishly to get one of the victims of his vehicle.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, [alfnoble@yahoo.com]
Just before noon on Saturday this Coke truck slammed into this Kee's Bakery delivery truck at mile three on the Northern Highway. The collision was so violent, it sent the delivery truck vaulting in the other direction - directly into the path of this red Isuzu Rodeo.
The delivery truck finally stopped when it landed on top of the Rodeo. It remained perched there precariously for 15 minutes, pinning driver Juan Carlos Romero, known as Muffy, inside. Benny's Hardware, whose warehouse is just a quarter mile away, sent a pair of forklifts to life the delivery truck off the Rodeo.
And that's when we got there: Romero was still pinned inside, talking
lucidly and calmly to emergency technician, Javier Canul. The Fire Department team would be critical in getting Romero out. Their jaws of life were cutting open the crushed vehicle. While that created clearance at the top, Romero was still pinned so under directions from acting Fire Chief Ted Smith, Fireman Preston Bregal tried to cut off the steering wheel. Still that did not release Romero, and as a nurse worked to clean him up, and a crowd of over 100 persons looked on as the fire team worked on a new configuration to get him free. Finally Smith decided to use the jaws as the centerpiece in a vise that would pull up on the top of the SUV and thus free Romero. This would work in tandem with a hydraulic jack which would force the column up. With all that, finally, the vise worked and pulled up the top of the vehicle, freeing Romero's legs.
After that they still had to use the jaws to cut open the vehicles even more eventually pulling back the top of the SUV completely to allow BERT technicians access to get him out. First, the BERT team stabilized his spine with a vest, and got the stretcher ready and after two hours trapped inside, Romero was finally taken out secured in the stretcher and transferred to the ambulance. Ted Smith explained the fire department's job.
Ted Smith, Assistant Fire Chief
"His feet were trapped, the dash board came down and pinned down both of his legs underneath the dashboard there. Our responsibility was to free that while the BERT ambulance people stabilized the casualties. We had to cut away the roof section and then we tried to release the pressure off the legs by raising the steering column.
It is not a task that can be speedily executed. It's a time consuming effort. Our responsibility is to ensure that we do not add any other injury to the casualty so it must be done with care."
And while the rescue is one half of the story the other more compelling half is the human drama - the survivors' stories. The accounts that they give are gripping, but they are also conflicting later on in our newscast, we'll have first hand accounts from two of the drivers who saw the accident very differently.
