Last night a woman was killed in a traffic incident on her 64th birthday. Bernalda Pinelo, a resident of Mullins River, was travelling in a pickup truck with two other passengers and the driver, 53-year-old Paul Bernard, when they collided with a James bus, driven at the time by 47-year-old Rolando Duran.
Duran was driving towards Dangriga when, between miles 2 and 3 on the Stann Creek Valley Road, a white pickup truck came out of a dirt road. Duran flashed his light and honked his horn to alert the other driver, who then stopped and reversed into the dirt road.
Duran continued along the road, but then said that the pickup truck inexplicably lurched onto the highway and attempted to make a left turn. Duran hit the brakes but was unable to stop in time and the bus "T-Boned" the pickup truck, causing it swerve off into a ditch. The pickup truck ended up on the right side of the road. Pinelo died on the spot and her body now awaits a postmortem.
