Two weeks ago we told you the tragic story of San Ignacio Town maintenance worker, Herman "Kaibil" Valdez. He was crushed to death on the job after a brake failure on one of San Ignacio's steepest hills left him in the path of a runaway vehicle.
The immediate aftermath of that accident saw Mayor Earl Trapp promise to make the hill a one-way street but many opposed that idea, not least of all because of all the businesses situated on the hill.
And so while it looks like the mayor's first response won't fly, he did come up with an alternative safety feature that he installed today. Here's that story.
Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio
"Basically, we are stacking 4 tyres here. Week before we had an accident here, a vehicle ran out of brakes and smashed directly into one of our employees that were out here working and was crushed to death. Yes, we are doing this after the fact that a loved one was killed, but it's still not too late. If we don't do this then we might be waiting for something more tragic to happen. Sometimes we have functions out here and vehicle still comes down the hill. Everything that is man-made is bound to fail. In the future if we should have any brake failure from this hill, at the least we will have this vector behind us basically run into rather than running into the wall behind or run into people. This car vector, we are putting in sand and gravel and dirt, will be able in the event that something goes wrong and a vehicle would run into it, it will work something like a cushion. In the back it has concrete and rock to make it heavier and it's not anchored into the ground. Its left floating on the road surface. If a vehicle ran into it, it will not get the full impact. What it will do, it has the cushion to the front and it will push the vector forward until it comes to a stop."
Driver
"Things like that, they should think about it before, but it's a good idea."
Driver
"It's a good idea, but they need to paint it. There are big trucks that comes down this hill. They have to stop those."
Driver
"Maybe it can work. They can put something else. In the night it can be dangerous."
Driver
"I thought it was going to be one-way."
