And while the spike in murders continues from last month, there has also been an increase in fatal road traffic accidents since the start of the month. In the past six days, there have been seven road fatalities. Two of those incidents occurred last night in the Orange Walk District, almost simultaneously.
We'll start with the accident in Orange Walk Town. It was around 6pm when an unusual occurrence happened - 48-year-old Enrique Cawich seemingly slipped off his bicycle and was almost crushed by a bus.
While his body remained intact, his internal injuries caused his death.
Courtney Menzies travelled north today and has this story.
A 48-year-old man is lying in the morgue after he fell underneath a moving bus on Queen Victoria Street in Orange Walk Town. Enrique Cawich was reportedly on his way home on his bicycle when he seemed to have lost control and fell off.
An employee of a nearby clothing store, Joezer Reyes, saw the entire incident unfold and rushed to his aid. He told us today that Cawich had survived the initial impact, but his body was flung near this trash can where Reyes had been standing.
Voice of: Joezer Reyes, Eyewitness
"I was went to throw away some garbage and on my left side I saw an elderly man coming towards me and a bus was in front of him, like two bus, and the road was a bit narrow, he slipped off his bike, and he went underneath the bus. It went so fast that I just watched and I just watched and said, damn, the back wheel will mash his head. So I turned around because I said it will mash, but at the same time when I looked, the back wheel like chipped his head, and the impact moved him like way across the other side of the road. And then afterward, I was like, I need some help, because the two buses were so wide, I didn't know if the vehicles at the back were watching what was happening so I was afraid they mashed him too. So I called for my worker, help, somebody just get knocked down beside me. And at the same moment he was still breathing, he burst his head a little but not a lot of blood but I think he bled internally."
And that's exactly what Cawich's brother said the doctors told his family. Ishmael Cawich explained that his wife had been passing by when she saw a crowd gathered near the stoplights. When she realized it was her brother-in-law, she alerted the police, and they rushed him to the hospital.
Ishmael Cawich, Brother of Deceased
"When reaching at the hospital, the medical rush him to the emergency room and they start to rush him and they started to do something about what can they do to save his life or the condition he was, they wanted to know how the guy was. Now about ten minutes after, my cousin that works in the hospital, he informed my little brother from August Pine Ridge, he told him that your brother has passed away. The doctor did everything he could have done, but he had internal bleeding."
But Cawich told us that even though he's mourning his older brother, the victim had a severe alcohol problem, and he believed that may have led to his death.
Ishmael Cawich, Brother of Deceased
"I was in shock, I said I can't believe it, because just Monday night I saw my brother and he was drunk and I said, I feel sorry for him. But I have been speaking to him encouraging him, advising him as a little brother because, he's my older brother, I am the one that follow after him. Now, it hurt me seeing my brother like that because I told him, man, try change your life, if you want to drink, try drink responsibly, drinking and being on the street, people are drinking and driving and a lot of accidents can happen and only that night I felt sorry for my brother when I saw him and just yesterday my wife came and gave me that notice, it shocked me, it shocked me."
"What happened, I think he was working at the housing site behind the hospital about a drain that the government is giving people to fix for the flood for the rainy season."
"When you go and work there and you do your task and the same day you can collect. So I think that is what happened yesterday, while coming out from work, I think he collect what he have done for the day and he went to drink. And I am so sad, it give me pain in my heart because it's my brother."
Cawich had no children.
