And while the experience of this newsroom is that the lax enforcement culture remains in the police and transport department - what's most incredible to us is that the government of Belize has not put out a single comprehensive declaratory statement or strategy to respond to this historic tragedy.
We asked Gentle if anything different will. Be done going forward:
Jules Vasquez
"Is this an inflection point for you all? We have 10 people dead. It's a worse traffic fatality I have ever seen in memory. Is it an event that will make all the relevant authorities, municipal, central government, and law enforcement converge to come up with a plan to certainly take us through Christmas, but even thereafter?"
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"I agree. And even before, like I've been saying, even before this incident occurred, we have been having that dialogue. We have been having that conversation."
Jules Vasquez
"You could understand a member of the public who would say, while you all are conversating and strategize and planning, people are dying. It has been the worst year for traffic fatalities on record, I suspect. Last year was a 73% increase. And this year, year on year, will be significant. It's a crisis we're facing."
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"It is. And one of the things that I want to add to that, and if you look at majority of these accidents or incidents, and I've said this before, the onus is not only on the infrastructure that is available in our country, the enforcement that is conducted, the authorities that are affected, the health system that is strained based on these collisions or accidents or incidents, whichever you may call it, but the onus has to also be on the persons behind the wheel."
