Belize City Traffic Officer Injured After Driver Runs Over His Foot

A traffic officer with the Belize City Council is recovering after a driver ran over his foot with her vehicle on St. Thomas Street yesterday. Portions of that street are currently closed to traffic due to ongoing road works; however the driver still drove pass the cones, defying the street closure.  Despite Bernard’s warning the driver persisted and she ran over his foot after he pursued her and told her to stop. Erin Garnett, Communications and Director for the Belize City Council, says that Bernard was admitted to the hospital in considerable pain after the incident. She notes that the situation highlights an ongoing the issue the council has been seeing with motorists.

Erin Garnett, Communications Director, Belize City Council: “Mr.Bernard was out helping to enforce and we had a driver come on on the side of the street that is currently closed off for rehabilitation and so Mr.Bernard attempted to signal her to stop from going into the site. She did not respond and so she kind of flew by. Following that Mr.Bernard tried to get on his motorcycle to signal her to reach her to stop. He eventually caught up with her and when he caught up with her this is when this incident happened with the vehicle running over his foot. This is not the first time something like this has happened. Not to this degree but in the past I could show you some pictures where we poured cement for a street rehabilitation we have photos of motorcycle marks, bicycle marks driving through this cement that’s waiting to be cured and so these marks are embedded in the project. And so this is just really something that we want to highlight just because compliance is so important and especially when we are working on a project that’s for the betterment of the entire city this has been a long awaited project when things like this happen it is dangerous for the driver that could collide with equipment. It is dangerous for our team out there who is working on contraction, obviously for our enforcement officers and so compliance and the greater issue of civic pride is such a key point in matters like this.”

Yesterday, Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner said that St. Thomas Street’s repairs became necessary after Belize Water Services dug up the street.