What should have been an ordinary drive home from work ended in heartbreak along the George Price Highway. Two men never made it back to their families after a violent crash Saturday night, leaving loved ones grieving and a country once again asking how quickly life can change on our roads. News Five’s Shane Williams takes us to the scene and shares the human stories behind this tragedy.
Shane Williams, Reporting
The grief is raw and overwhelming. It echoes across the dark night. Unimaginable pain from a loved one’s life cut short just trying to make it back home from a hard day’s work. This crash happened just after seven p.m. near the curve by Robbie’s Kitchen, a turn motorists know well.
First responders arrived to chaos on the highway. A Ford Escape sat mangled beyond recognition, with two men inside showing no signs of life. Just yards away, a Ford Transit van, packed with Digi Belize workers heading home from the Agriculture Show in Belmopan, lay battered off the road. Several passengers were hurt, all of them caught in a crash that turned a normal ride home into a night of devastation. Sixty-three-year-old electrician Nelson Hemsley and his passenger, thirty-nine-year-old Glenn Lamb, had just finished electrical work and were heading home when everything went wrong.
Hilberto Romero
ACP Hilberto Romero, Head, National Crime Investigation Branch
“Information is that the black SUV hit the motorcycle first, thereafter swerving into the lane of the oncoming van, causing a head-on collision. Hemley and Lamb were taken to the KHMH where they were pronounced dead on arrival.”
Nelson Hemsley
Two working men gone in an instant. Linsdale Graham says Nelson’s family is coping the only way they know how, by being together.
Dale Graham
Dale Graham, Brother-in-Law of Deceased
“He is someone that has always been just a phone call away. Always super reliable, super loving, really caring. Nelson is the type of person that he will remember what you like and he will show up at your door with that. Whether it is a tamales or whatever it is, he is just finding some way to put his love in action. And so as his family, we are reeling from this lost right now and just trying to remember just how much of an amazing man he is and the impact that he has had on our lives.”
Glenn Lamb
As one family tried to come to terms with sudden loss, another faced a moment no parent is ever prepared for. At the Boom mortuary, Michaela Baide stepped outside after saying goodbye to her son for the last time; a quiet, devastating pause before an autopsy no mother ever wants to witness. For these families, the shock is still setting in, and the weight of what’s been lost is only beginning to sink in.
Michaela Baide
Michaela Baide, Mother of Deceased
“Mr. Hemsley was a father figure to Glen, a best friend, a buddy. Soh I think that da weh cause Glenn fi come out. Because ih noh work on Saturday. That day, from Thursday ih say ih noh gwen anywhere. I wish I had one more minute with ah. One more minute you know. Ih sad. Ih sad because he noh bad. I noh inna gang nothing and then he da mi my electrician. He da mi my husband, my buddy, my soulmate. He nail my nails. He fix my lights.”
Meanwhile, everyone inside the van was also doing the same thing, trying to get home safely. In a statement, the company confirmed their staff had been traveling from Belmopan noting that while several were injured all are in stable condition. The motorcyclist, David Lambey, also survived and is receiving care. Tonight police investigations continue. But beyond the wreckage is a sobering reality. For some Belizeans the workday ended but the journey home never did. Shane Williams for News Five.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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