Yesterday we told you about a traffic fatality in the city that killed a man on a bicycle. Tonight, we can confirm that the victim is 70-year-old Fidel Guardado, a Salvadoran who has been living in Belize for the past four years.
Today, Courtney Menzies visited his family and has this story.
An elderly man is in the morgue after a bus belonging to Bowen & Bowen ran over him yesterday evening. 70-year-old Fidel Guardado was riding his bicycle next to the bus on Vernon Street when the tragedy unfolded.
Voice of: Joseph Gardiner, Eyewitness
"I was sitting here, me and a couple customers having a chat and then later on I saw the traffic start to back up, I was wondering why it was backing up, so I went out to see, when I crossed the street and look down the block, and I see this guy laying down with a bicycle. And when I went down there, his head was all crushed, brains out of his head, couldn't recognize him. I thought it was like a wig he had on. And I said, well wow, he passed away, and I walked back this way, I didn't go back that way until the police locked off the area."
"I think he got grazed by the bus and he fell, and when he fell, it was straight under the back wheel and it crushed him."
And according to Guardado's son, he was a hard worker, but though he was on his way to his job site, he was also intoxicated.
Manuel Guardado, Son of Deceased
"I talked with him, in the morning he came and he took me to buy a phone, then he bought me some tacos and gave me $10 and I came with him here and he said he was going to take a circle, and then he came drunk, he was sitting there on the corner, I brought him here."
"So my dad was here in the evening and he said he wanted to go work and he lives here about 4 years in Belize and he is a security, he works only at night, but he come to rest right here in the day, so yesterday he went about 4 and he was going on the bike and I told him, okay take care, and he left. So in the evening my brother called me and he told me they bang the man on a bus."
"He's a good person, he enjoy right here, with my family. He works hard, yes, and maybe two weeks a month he takes money for my mom. My family feels bad."
Guardado had 17 children, and had been living in El Salvador previously.
The driver of the bus, 43-year-old Loren Lopez, has been detained. In a press release issued by Bowen & Bowen, they said, quote, "We are cooperating with the investigation and will assist in any way possible to help determine what happened." End quote.
