Tonight, a multiple traffic fatality has left Roaring Creek village in a state of grief and shock. It's the year's first quadruple traffic fatality: 4 working men died while heading home from a construction job in Dangriga. Jomarie Lanza headed west today to meet with grieving families in the aftermath of the devastating loss.
The fatal accident near mile 28 on the hummingbird highway, claimed the lives of 4 friends, 3 of whom were construction workers returning from a job site in Dangriga.
43 year old Sherwyn Garbutt was driving the Chevy Silverado pickup truck was en route to Roaring creek with a total of 9 passengers on board - two of them were his workers, 50 year old Delwin Armstrong and 43 year old Timothy Neal, and also his friend 43 year old Edwin Brown who decided to catch a ride with the group back to his home.
Garbutt somehow lost control of the vehicle which caused them to flip several times flinging all his passengers out onto the pavement. It's left the community in shock. The Armstrong family told us that when they arrived at the hospital their relative was still alive.
Elvis Armstrong, Older brother of deceased
"So when we came out from Roaring Creek we went back to Belmopan and when we got there they were bringing them in. They brought in my brother in third. They brought in the first two guys who were broken up then afterwards they brought him in but from I saw him I knew he wouldn't survive because it looked as if he fell on his head and he cracked his skull and he was bleeding through his nose and mouth and he was fighting for his life because he was kicking and stretching out his hands fighting for his life. So by the time we went to get a pickup to transport him to Belize to do a cat scan on his head. By the time we were turning by the roundabout to get to the hospital, my sister called my son and said your uncle didn't make it. He passed away so it didn't make sense for us to hurry again. He already passed away."
Armstrong had been working as a construction worker for a number of years, but the day of his passing his older brother claims that his sibling told him he had a bad feeling and was hesitant to report to work.
Elvis Armstrong, Older brother of deceased
"And he didn't want to go and work, you know but he said you know what, I better go and finish the week because I went to Belmopan Friday morning and he told me bro I don't feel like going to work you know. I told him well when the man comes just tell him you won't go. But then he said he already got ready and so I left and I went to sleep in Belmopan the Friday night and it was the Saturday it happened when my wife called me that night around 7:30, 8:00."
Jo-
"You think maybe he had a feeling that something would have happened."
Elvis Armstrong, Older brother of deceased
"I think so I think it's that he was feeling but he probably wasn't certain what was going to happen but he didn't like being up and down he didn't like going up and down in vehicle."
Jo-
"How old was he?"
Elvis Armstrong, Older brother of deceased
"50, he was 50 and I will miss him because we were close."
Jo-
"Cause he's your little brother?"
Elvis Armstrong, Older brother of deceased
"Yeah he's my little brother but he likes to call me his little brother because he's bigger in me in body."
And when we visited the Neal family home shortly after, and spoke with Timothy Neal's devastated mother, she shared with us that although her son did not survive, her 15 year old grandson Nabil Reyes who accompanied his father to work that day, sustained life threatening injuries and remains hospitalized.
Vornina Neal, Mother of deceased
"He was a construction worker all the time he would go and work with my cousins, it was my cousin who took him to go and work. The boys say that when they finished work up here Sherwin took them to Dangriga but these ones didn't go, only my son went and his son who is in the hospital. They did a cat scan on him this morning because he had to get stitches in his head like a V. His left hand is broken and his shoulder."
Jo-
"And you know as a mother and this being your eldest child how did you first react when you heard he got in an accident and didn't make it."
Vornina Neal, Mother of deceased
"I didn't want to believe it until people came and said it's true and that was it. I didn't want to cry cause I waited until afterwards when I was by myself. I don't like crying in front of people. That's all. But he's a hard working person everyone likes to give him jobs."
And from one grieving mother to another, when we stopped by the Brown, Gordon household where Edwin Brown's mother resided. She told us that she had just spoken with her son earlier that day, just hours before he met,what she calls his inevitable fate, out on the highway.
Jo-
"When was the last time you spoke to your son?"
Jean Gordon, Mother of deceased
"The same day I called him because what happened was we were going to have a big party on the 9th. And they were calling him because we wanted to ask him which suit he wants and we couldn't get a hold of him so I called him, and when I called him I couldn't get him but he called me back and said mom I'm out on the sea I'm diving for conchs to bring home. I said Oh I didn't know I have a diver and that was the last time I spoke to him."
Jo-
"Being a mother and this being your only son, how does it make you feel to know that you lost him so suddenly?"
Jean Gordon, Mother of deceased
"I'll tell you the honest truth. It hurts, it's a pain that will never go away but I console myself because they fired shots at my son three times and he didn't die so obviously he wasn't meant to die by gunshots. And you can't cheat death, people say that you can have an untimely death but I don't believe in that when your time comes it comes so that's why I'm trying to hold up because I consoled myself and said that was probably his destiny. It was something that was supposed to happen."
And while these two mothers are still processing the chain of events that claimed the lives of their sons. One young man is now left to grow up without a father, a man he says was a solid man of the household, who cared for his home and his kids.
Sherwin Garbutt Jr., Son of Deceased
"When I got the news I was right on my bed with me and my mom. My cousin Jaheim called me and asked me if I heard anything and I said no and he explained to me what he heard. So I ended the call and called my dad cause I know he's a solid man and I didn't take it serious me or my mom took it serious we didn't expect that."
Reporter
"When did it sink in that you lost your dad?"
Sherwin Garbutt Jr., Son of Deceased
"I saw him at the hospital, in the back of the pickup."
