A young driver hurt in a violent Sunday Prado rollover collision on Belize’s Philip Goldson Highway, close to the Haulover Bridge, is recovering in a local hospital and is projected to make a full recovery, according to his father Emilio Zabaneh.
Emil Brian Zabaneh, the 24-year-old crash victim, walked away from the incident with two major injuries: a deep laceration to the back of his head that required eight surgical stitches to close, and a small hairline fracture in his lower spine. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Emilio’s father explained that the collision left the younger Zabaneh unconscious, and that he has struggled to reconstruct the full sequence of events in the hours after the crash.
“He’s doing his best to recall what happened, but large parts of the accident are still a blur because he was knocked out cold immediately after impact,” Emilio Zabaneh said.
Based on surveillance footage collected from nearby cameras after the crash, Emil was traveling north toward his home when a second vehicle exited a local gas station and cut directly across all lanes of traffic, directly into Emil’s driving path. The footage shows the sudden maneuver left Emil with no time to avoid a collision, causing his Prado to roll over violently. The impact was severe enough to throw Emil completely out of the vehicle through its open sunroof.
In a tragic twist, Emilio Zabaneh confirmed that his son had only taken ownership of the Prado two days before the crash. The younger Zabaneh had already invested in a series of upgrades to the vehicle, including a full air conditioning repair, four brand-new tires, and a replacement battery, getting the car ready for regular use.
The elder Zabaneh did not mince words when assigning blame for the collision, saying that the driver of the vehicle that pulled into traffic had no justification for the dangerous cross-lane maneuver. Beyond holding the other driver accountable, he also called for urgent infrastructure changes to prevent similar crashes along the busy stretch of highway.
Just this morning, Zabaneh said he personally raised the safety issue with Belize’s Prime Minister, urging the government to extend the existing highway median all the way to the Haulover Bridge. He noted that separated traffic lanes are a standard safety feature in many other countries, and that the extension would eliminate the risk of cross-traffic turns from adjacent gas stations and access roads that have led to repeated collisions in the area.