Belize City Motorist Succumbs to Fatal Traffic Accident One Week Later

The family of thirty-eight-year-old Rafael Marin is tonight mourning his untimely death following a traffic accident last Thursday night. The father of two was knocked down by a motorcycle in front of his house on Albert Hoy Street as he was crossing the main thoroughfare in the Belama Phase Two area of Belize City.  The impact sent Marin to the pavement; he received severe head and bodily injuries and was rushed to the K.H.M.H. Within hours, he underwent surgery and remained in a coma until this morning when he passed away inside the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. His death has dealt a terrible blow to the family which is now urging the police to investigate. News Five spoke with Marin’s older sister, Maria, who recounted what happened.

Maria Marin

Maria Marin, Sister of Traffic Victim

“On Thursday I was at work and my daughter called me saying that they had hit my brother right in front of our house; he was hit by a cycle and he was thrown. My daughter rushed down to see what had happened. When she rushed down, the other people rushed to him and he was bleeding from the nose and the ears. They turn him up and they flagged down a vehicle and my other brother took him to the hospital. When we got there, he was still talking and everything, but like ten minutes after he went unconscious and that was it; he never woke up.”

Duane Moody

“Unfortunately, he was in there for days…”

Maria Marin

“He underwent surgery for the brain and surgery for the stomach on Friday morning at two o’clock and he’s been in a coma since then and he passed away this morning.”

Duane Moody

“Now what kinda injuries did the doctor say he sustained?”

Maria Marin

“He sustained severe head injuries, he had a ruptured spleen so they had to take that out; they had to repair his liver and he had a broken rib or a fractured rib so the impact was really hard.”

Duane Moody

“It was a motorcycle and someone was speeding?”

Maria Marin

“Yes. It was right over there. He was right over that side; the motorcycle came this way. My brother was on that side crossing and the cycle was coming this way and the cycle hit him over that yellow line.”

Duane Moody

“Did the cyclist stop?”

Maria Marin

“Yes he did. He was out here. I wasn’t here because from work I rushed straight to the hospital. And yes, but nothing else was done.”

Duane Moody

“Now what are the police saying, because this didn’t come on the police blotter. Did they take any recording of it? Did they go and make a report?”

Maria Marin

“No…we were so busy with dealing with my brother at the hospital and it is only me and my little brother…dealing with everything so we would have thought that they would have come and check if my brother was okay because after that we haven’t seen them.”

Duane Moody

“So what about the guy that knocked him down? What’s his name?”

Maria Marin

“I don’t know. I don’t know.”

According to Maria, speeding is a perennial problem on Albert Hoy Street despite a pedestrian ramp in proximity to where the accident took place.