There was a collision at rush hour yesterday on the Northern Highway. Taxi driver Winford McClaren says that around 5:30 he was driving from Burrell Boom enroute to Belize City when he collided into an SUV with government license plates at mile 13. It occurred at a steep curve and McClaren says the government vehicle was speeding which caused it to flip. So McClaren says he was in the right but now police are saying that he was in the wrong. And he believes it's all because of his dreadlocks.
Winford McClaren,
"He ran into my vehicle on the driver side and damaged the fenders and the whole bumper, the front bumper, just fell off and when I stopped I was in the middle of the road and their vehicle flipped over a few times and when I looked police men came up from behind and instead of they take the other people into the police station, they took me to the police station and asked what happened."
Keith Swift,
So what did they tell you?
Winford McClaren,
"They told me they want to charge me for driving without due care and attention but I wasn't drinking or wasn't drunk or anything like this. Maybe it is because I am a Rasta man and they might have negative thoughts about Rasta people but I was being careful, I was driving consciously, soberly and stuff like that.
I know most of the time they usually target Rasta man for drug smoking and for all kinds of things and its even hard for a Rasta man to get a job and that is why I have my taxi to drive and be independent because it is very hard being a Rasta man in this country and being able to get a job anyway. They want you to cut off your dreadlocks."
Police have not issued a report on the accident to the press.
