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Today, the Police Department held a rare Thursday briefing due to the urgency of road safety.
The frightening spike in fatalities - at the cusp of the Christmas season - has prompted them to work with the Department of Transport to increase the number of checkpoints along the highway.
First ACP Romero gave is the full rundown on last night's quadruple fatality.
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Upon their arrival they say a Dodge Ram pickup with damages and the driver was identified as one Alejandro Hernandez. Also seen was an Isuzu Amigo vehicle extensively damaged and several persons were injured in that vehicle. Investigation revealed that Alejandro Hernandez was driving the Dodge Ram pickup when he over took a vehicle and collided into the Isuzu Amigo vehicle causing the injuries to the persons. This persons were taken to the KHMH and the following persons succumbed to their injuries, namely Noel Pineda, Christian Lobos, Ian Mahler, and Matias Gonzalez. Eric Delgado, Melvin Ramos and Ostoso Garcia are at the hospital receiving treatment and are in stable condition. Alejandro Hernandez is in custody, a urine sample has been obtained and he will be charged for the fatalities."
Reporter:
"What type of charges are we looking at?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Manslaughter by negligence and driving without due care and attention."
Reporter:
"The persons who died were in his vehicle?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"No the persons that passed away were in the Isuzu Amigo vehicle. The driver for that vehicle is one of the persons who succumbed to the injuries. Hernandez was by himself in that vehicle."
Reporter:
"Since Saturday 9 persons have lost their lives in various road traffic incidents. What is the police doing to maybe see how they can ensure or maybe bolsters safety on the highways."
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Yes we have our checkpoints up and we are currently working on putting other checkpoints along the highway, again to discourage drivers from this issue with reckless driving and again we encourage drivers to exercise extreme caution, yesterday it was raining really hard and so these persons should have been more precautious, ensure that you have a clear path when overtaking because that seems to be the issue here that led to this accident."
Reporter:
"Considering that these fatal accident have all happened at night, these checkpoints, is it a 24/7…"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Yes the ones that are up are managed 24 hours but we will also have others that will be set up for this coming Christmas season."
Between Saturday night and Wednesday night, there were a total of 9 traffic fatalities on Belize's highways.
