A 19 year old lost his life in a road accident on the Northern Highway last night. Ricardo Noble died, and the driver Jose Luis Rodriguez is in the hospital recovering from injury. And while every fatal accident is a tragedy, this one hits close to home; the young man is our Dean Street neighbor at Channel 7 and he’s also the nephew of Channel 7 alum Alfonso and Fortunato Noble. Today, Alfonso told us that his nephew had gone out from early yesterday.
Alfonso Noble, Uncle of Deceased
“Sometime around 2 he left the city. He left in the company of Jose Rodriquez who was the driver of the vehicle. We don’t know where they went in terms of earlier in the day. What we do know is that sometime around 8 to 8:30 he made his way to Orange Walk Town and visited his little brother and therein I don’t know what happened. I received a call sometime around 11:30 last night by one of my relatives who told me that they had found his vehicle on the side of the road in Sandhill near the Police Station by a curve. It had flipped multiple times apparently and it had landed on its top.”
The Explorer tumbled as it rounded the corner at mile 18 and a half, one of
the sharpest turns on the Northern highway. Police believe that it flipped forward, and say that the body of 19-year-old Ricardo Noble was found underneath. He wore no seatbelt and is believed to have died on the spot while the driver Jose
Luis Rodriquez fled. Residents say they saw him leaving on foot headed towards the city.
Alfonso Noble,
“When the police responded to the scene they only found my nephew there. They didn’t find the driver or they didn’t know his whereabouts.”
The teenaged Ricardo Noble had worked to pay his way through school at Gwen Liz and was looking forward to sixth form.
Alfonso Noble,
“He was an exceptional young man. He was as one of his former teacher explained, he was one of the most promising students that he had. However all that is now just dashed and the family is completely in shock because he is not the kind of person that you are going to see on the street drinking and behaving in any rash or any bad manner. This is I think a chance happening that he got into this vehicle and left came back only to receive his death in such a violent manner.”
As we noted driver Jose Luis Rodriguez fled the scene but turned up at the KHMH this morning. Police expect to bring charges when he is released from the hospital.
