Police have charged 23 year old Belizean American Shevon Arzu for Monday night’s deadly collision on the Southern Highway. Arzu – who is enlisted in the United States Navy – was the driver of the SUV loaded with 5 passengers. He says he lost control between miles 1 and 2 on the Southern Highway and crashed head onto into a Dodge pickup being driven by Carlos Coc in the opposite direction. Three passengers in Arzu’s SUV were killed and yesterday he was charged with three counts of manslaughter by negligence for their deaths. Today the bodies of all three victims were brought to Belize City for autopsies and for the first time since the crash – they spoke out.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This afternoon the body of 21 year old Godwin Tench arrived from Dangriga at the Belize City morgue. His mother was there along with the families of 18 year old Cleopha Francisco and 24 year old Roman Sabal. All three were killed when this SUV they were in - crashed into this GMC Pickup.
Llewellyn Tench, Mother of Godwin Tench
“I thought he was at home sleeping but not knowing that he was one of them that went on that trip.”
Ronnette Sabal, Sister of Roman Sabal
“He left from our house and he said
he was going out with his friends and they went and couple hours after that they came and said he got into an accident and he died.”
Keith Swift,
“Has the person who was driving told you guys what happened?”
Ronnette Sabal,
“No he really can’t talk much right now.”
Stephanie Laurie, Cousin of Cleofia Francisco
“My cousin didn’t want to go and then we heard it from other people in the town saying my cousin didn’t want to go, she insisted that she wants to go home because she has a 4 year old child and she says she needed to go home to her baby because her baby needed to go school in the morning. So as to what happened, we don’t really know what happened but we would want to know what happened but we don’t know exactly what happened.”
Keith Swift,
“Do you know where they were going?”
Stephanie Laurie,
“Well the young lady who is in the bed, she says they were going to Hopkins. So apparently that was minutes to eleven or after ten because they
have the Chiney man who is at the game shop in Dangriga by the bridge foot and he said they left the shop about 10:30 and then they said the incident happened around 11 so I guess they were going.”
These family members now drawn together by tragedy aren’t sure if alcohol played a role.
Ronnette Sabal,
“I don’t know, they said they found alcohol but when they left the house they didn’t have alcohol that I knew about.”
Stephanie Laurie,
“The young lady in the bed said they were drinking. My auntie and me were close because we go out together, we hang out together, and the family is taking it very hard because it is an unexpected death and most of us saw her the day and so it is very hard for us to accept it but as time goes by we will have to accept it but it is hard because she is only 18.”
What’s harder to accept is that all three families had to find the money to transport their loved ones to Belize for the post mortems.
Sharlene Pollard, Aunt of Roman Sabal
“The part which is frustrating to we is now because we had to find our own transport to bring our loved ones to the morgue to do the post mortems and when we got to the morgue in Dangriga we had to delay for a while because no police was present and they didn’t want to release the body without the presence of a policeman. So I would just hope the authorities look into it.”
Stephanie Laurie,
“We have to pay to bring the body from Dangriga to Belize and that costs money. We had to pay at least $300 to $500 for them to bring the body here. When we reached then they told us that we have to pay an extra $200 for the embalming of the body. We weren’t expecting that, we weren’t ready for that. We didn’t come with the money. We’ve already paid for the man to bring we and so we don’t have that extra money to pay for embalming of the body. For me it would have been cheaper if the man had just flown down to Dangriga and tend to the three bodies.”
Police are still awaiting the results of blood alcohol test to determine if drinking played a role in the accident. Though he was initially served with a notice of intended prosecution, police say they don’t intend to charge Carlos Coc.
