Tonight, we start with the tragic death of a teenage mother to be. 18 year old Janet McNab was six months pregnant and couldn't wait to give birth - but that dream was crushed after a road traffic accident took her life and that of her unborn child.
The accident also claimed the life of another child, 12 year old Leea Valencia, who died shortly after McNab.
It was a family affair gone horribly wrong on Saturday afternoon while travelling at mile 16 on the Coastal Road when the van they were travelling in violently flipped.
Courtney Menzies has this story of how an overloaded van may have contributed to this Coastal calamity:
This was the scene of a car crash that stole three lives - one of whom never took their first breath.
And you hear the father to be frustratingly pleading for everyone to put down the cameras and help his pregnant girlfriend.
But any help would be futile because 18 year old Janet McNab passed away before reaching the hospital. Her mother now grappling with losing a second child and her boyfriend coming to terms with losing his girlfriend of one year and his unborn baby.
McNab's cousin held back tears as she vented her annoyance at those who videoed instead of rendering assistance.
Allysha Rodriguez, Cousin of Deceased
"The moment when we get the news, everybody broke down because I feel like my cousin was young for the way that she died, she didn't deserve that, that hurt all of us. The way people are videoing it and posting it on Facebook that doesn't make any sense because I always see accidents happen but I never ever believe it would happen to my little cousin."
"We know we won't be able to deal with this right now because it will be hard for us to forget my cousin because she didn't live here with us but nearly every day she was here. Whenever she gets bored at home, she come out. When she want eat something, she comes here. "Uncle buy this for me," "Al, treat me to this." The last thing I treat her to was a cold cake that she wanted."
McNab was on her way back to Belize after attending a function for her boyfriend's family in Dangriga. The van, which contained only ten seats, was at over 200% capacity with 22 people inside. And up to this morning, the family still had no idea how the accident happened. But today, the police filled in some of the blanks.
Senior Supt Hilberto Romero, Deputy Head NCIB
"The van was coming from Dangriga heading to La Democracia junction when at some point the van overturned."
"There are several factors that we are investing. That is an area that has a lot of loose gravel and a lot of stones."
"At the scene we saw that two of the tires were blown out from the van."
Jules Vasquez:
"Was the van of an adequate size to hold 22 people?"
Senior Supt Hilberto Romero, Deputy Head NCIB
"That is being investigated as we know that they have certain seating capacity that should be at 75%. That is part of the investigation, at the conclusion we will determine the charges."
And while the family now has answers to what happened, they are still questioning, "Why her?" Her cousin said that McNab went everywhere with her, and now there is an empty space missing from their lives.
Allysha Rodriguez, Cousin of Deceased
"Everybody know Janet or know about Janet because she is on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, everything. So everybody about Janet, maybe they don't know her personally but for us who know her personally, she have her ways, she want have her own way, she think she's the older cousin, she want tell me what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and stuff like that. We have or differences at times but other than that my cousin, she was a nice person/. And she will be missed because she's ignorant right and we like to tell her "you will turn granny before your time" or "you will look old" and she would just suck her teeth but she was a nice girl and she really left a whole in our hearts because we won't get over this right now."
Courtney Menzies:
"She seemed to be so lively."
Allysha Rodriguez, Cousin of Deceased
"Yes she is and she was excited about her pregnancy, happy to be a ma, and now this just happen, but she's with her baby now."
But McNab and her boyfriend never got the chance to find out the baby's gender together.
Allysha Rodriguez, Cousin of Deceased
"She always said she wouldn't get pregnant right now, but everybody says that. She didn't even want me to get pregnant, she always told me to wait till I done do this and finish what I needed to do. But she was excited about her pregnancy, she really wanted to be a mom. Today she was to find out if it was to be a boy or a girl. She was supposed to go for her ultrasound."
Shortly after McNab's death, 12 year old Leea Valencia, who was also in the van, passed away as well.
Most of the passengers were treated and released except for a 3 year old child who had both hands broken, and an estimated three other passengers who were taken to the KHMH.
The driver of the vehicle, 32 year old Oscar Gonguez Jr, has refused to give the police a urine sample, and will be charged for failure to give sample.
With 22 people in the vehicle - many of them children - if you estimate each passenger weighed an average of 100 pounds - the Ford Econoline van would have been carrying about a metric tonne in passenger weight.
