A tragic morning in Maskall Village has left a family grieving and a community in shock. Eighteen-year-old Triston Ortiz lost his life in a devastating road traffic accident on Sunday. Police say Ortiz was a passenger in a Toyota Hilux driven by thirty-four-year-old Gilbert Graham when the vehicle lost control and slammed into a bridge. Sadly, Ortiz didn’t survive the crash. Tonight, we take a closer look at what happened and what police are saying about the incident.
ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer
“On Sunday twenty-second June 2025 at around five-thirty p.m. police responded to reports of a fatal road traffic accident that occurred at Old Belize River Bridge located in Maskall Village. In the course of responding, police met a pickup truck where Triston Ortiz, an eighteen-year-old Belizean of Maskall was observed with visible injuries to the body. Ortiz was ferried to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital; however, he later succumbed to the injuries sustained. Initial investigations reveal that at approximately five o’clock a.m. Oritz was in a Toyota Hilux which was being driven by Gilbert Graham, a thirty-four-year-old Belizean when upon approaching the Old Belize River Bridge the truck collided on the railing of that bridge causing the truck to fall about twenty-feet into the riverbank. Police has detained Graham and a urine sample has been taken from him.”
