Deadly Prefab Home Crash Exposes Serious Highway Safety Gaps

Prefabricated houses are giving more Belizeans an affordable path to homeownership, but transporting those massive structures is creating serious risks on the country’s highways. That danger came into sharp focus after senior police officer Jovanni Ponce was killed when his SUV slammed into a house being hauled along the George Price Highway. Tonight, News Five’s Paul Lopez examines whether enforcement has kept pace with a rapidly expanding industry and what must change to prevent another deadly collision.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

For thousands of Belizeans, a prefabricated house offers an affordable way to own a home. But before one of those structures reaches its destination, it must travel along the same highways used by motorists every day. The deadly collision that claimed the life of senior police officer Jovanni Ponce has now exposed the risks involved when an oversized load and an unsuspecting driver meet on the road. Ponce died when his SUV collided with a prefabricated house on the George Price Highway. The impact ripped off the vehicle’s roof and sent wood through the windshield. Now, one question looms: Did weak rules or poor enforcement cost him his life?

 

Ronny Plett, Member, Home Movers Group

“I think overall the housing industry has a very good record. On average, there are at least three thousand homes being moved a year in Belize, and this has been going on for about twenty-three years now. This industry has been rolling in Belize.”

 

Ronny Plett is a member of the Belize Home Movers Group, which brings industry stakeholders together to discuss the regulations and recommend ways to make transporting oversized structures safer. He says the industry’s record must be measured against the thousands of homes moved each year, but he also acknowledges that every life lost is one too many.

 

Ronny Plett

“Unfortunately, about four lives have been lost in that time, but for an industry with that amount of movement, I think that is a pretty good record. My preference would be to have that number at zero, and we are trying our best to make sure we improve our safety standards.”

 

The industry’s rapid growth is being driven largely by price. Industry estimates put the cost of an unfinished twenty-by-thirty-foot metal house at between thirty-one and thirty-three thousand dollars. A fully finished structure of the same size, with two bedrooms, costs approximately eighty-five thousand dollars. Prefab homes may cost less, but moving them carries serious risks. Transporters must properly light, mark and coordinate each load to protect motorists.

 

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport

“The house itself must be properly lit, particularly the four corners of the house, so that it would indicate to motorists the size of the oversized load and the amount of road space it is occupying.”

 

Chester Williams, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Transport, has been involved in discussions with movers about strengthening safety measures. But regulations are only effective when authorities have enough officers to monitor compliance, and Williams admits the Department of Transport is not yet operating with the staffing level it needs.

 

Chester Williams

“We will be the first to admit to you that we are hoping to reach where we want to be with the amount of staff that has been approved to us by Cabinet. But again, the process, the bureaucracy that we have to go through, we have still not gotten there as yet. We are at the stage where the Ministry of Public Service has approved the creation of the positions. And so, we are waiting for the Ministry of Finance to create the positions and to allocate the funds for us to hire the additional personnel needed at the Department of Transport.”

 

That gap raises a critical concern. The industry is growing now, while the additional officers needed to enforce the rules remain tied up in the government’s hiring and budgeting process. In the meantime, movers must decide when these massive structures can travel with the least disruption and danger to the public.

 

Ronny Plett

“From Plett Home Builders, not specifically as a group, but from Plett Home Builders, we prefer night moves because we find the road is much emptier. During the daytime, you are going to meet anywhere between five hundred and two thousand vehicles in your trip between Belize City and Belmopan. We can’t move very fast, so we are on the road for about three hours, and that causes major traffic delays for daytime moves.”

 

Three thousand homes reportedly hit Belize’s highways each year, many after dark. The real question is whether enforcement can keep pace. For families, prefabricated homes represent affordability and opportunity. For the authorities and the companies moving them, the responsibility is ensuring that the journey to homeownership does not place another life in danger. Paul Lopez 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.

 

Watch the full newscast here: