Fatal boat collision on the Crooked Tree Lagoon

Posted: Friday, January 31, 2014. 3:24 pm CST.

Crooked Tree village
(Courtesy Google Earth)

Emergency personnel and the police are at the scene of a boat crash on the Crooked Tree Lagoon. Two vessels, reportedly belonging to the Belize National Coast Guard, collided this morning as they were transporting students and workers across the flooded lagoon.

The cause of the fatal incident is not yet known, but early indications are that the engine on one of the boats may have stalled and the driver of the other did not realize it in time to avoid a collision.

The victim of this morning’s boat crash on the Crooked Tree Lagoon has been identified as Ben Gentle, 17.  In our previous reports we had said it was a primary school boy who had perished.  A resident of Crooked Tree village says that Gentle was enroute to work in Belize City when the incident happened early this morning.

Other occupants of the crashed boats were also injured, although the extent of those injuries is not yet known.

A resident of of the village at the scene said that “it is a sad day for Crooked Tree,” as the ambulance and police personnel arrived in the area this morning.

The fatal crash comes at a time when villagers are getting ready to pay tribute to the stellar work that the Belize National Coast Guard and Belize Audubon Society has done in the last 3 months to assist residents of the village who have been several affected by flooding.

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