Mother Demands Swift Justice for Son Killed by Bus

Tonight, a mother is speaking out after losing her son in a tragic road traffic accident in Ladyville. It happened Sunday morning, just before eleven, on Marage Road. Thirty-eight-year-old Gabriel Mai was riding his bicycle when he was hit by a bus and thrown to the ground. Sadly, he didn’t survive. Now, his family is demanding answers and action. They’re calling on police for swift justice and urging the Ministry of Transport to tighten the rules for buses on our roads. News Five’s Britney Gordon has the story.

 

Lily Betancourt, Mother of Deceased

“So we all rushed there. When we get there, they have my son body already call. So I asked the police, can I see my son? I say no, because I was hanging into walk that maybe he’s still breathing. They told me no”

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

A mother is left staring at an empty room, the room her son moved out of just two days ago. Now, he’s gone. Thirty-eight-year-old Gabriel Mai had just finished celebrating Belize’s Independence with friends when tragedy struck. Riding his bicycle along Marage Road in Ladyville, he never made it home.

 

ACP Hilberto Romero, Head, National Crime Investigation Branch

“On Sunday, the twenty-first day of September, 2025, police responded to a traffic accident at Marage Road in Ladyville. Upon the arrival, they saw a lifeless body of a male person beside him was a bicycle. Thereafter, police saw a bus also parked in the area. Investigation revealed that Phillip Sutherland was driving a bus when he struck male person who was riding the bicycle identified as Gabriel Mai. Gabriel Mai was taken for medical treatment where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Investigation is that Mai was riding his bicycle when he was struck by the bus. An investigation was carried out and Philip Su has been arrested, charged for driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention, manslaughter by negligence and causing death by careless conduct.”

 

Mai’s mother, Lily Betancourt, was at home cooking when her daughter received the call that Gabriel had been injured. The family rushed over to the scene which was less than five minutes away from their home, but by the time they arrived, it was already too late. They also spoke with people who saw it happen, eyewitnesses who shared what they experienced in those terrifying moments.

 

Lily Betancourt

“They say the bus was speeding as usual. That this is a careless driver and the worst part, my son was on his bike and the man speeding with the door open. The bus doors was open and it is the door that hit my son. And while that happened, the moment that happened, this driver was just talking to his conductor. He was not looking, he was pressing this axe on the bus and his eyes was not on the road. So sadly he take away my son.”

 

The driver of the bus, Phillip Sutherland, has since been charged with manslaughter by negligence and causing death by careless conduct. ACP Hilberto Romero, Head of the National Crimes Investigation Branch, says that a urine sample has been taken from the driver.

 

ACP Hilberto Romero

“Yes, a urine sample was taken from him for analysis.”

 

Betancourt isn’t just grieving the loss of her son, she’s furious. Outraged at what she calls the reckless behavior of the driver who hit him. She’s now calling for action, suggesting speed bumps be installed along that stretch of road, especially with so many schoolchildren in Ladyville at risk. For her, there’s simply no excuse for a mistake that cost her son his life.

 

Lily Betancourt

“As a loving son. Hardworking man, loving father, that because of some maybe wrong decisions, he and his wife have to part for a good wife. But the last two days of his life, he spent with his wife and children because it seems like she decided to forgive him. And he asked me because he was living here with us during that time, and just the nineteenth of September, he asked me, mama, can you please move me back there? And I did. And I just advise him please do the best way this time and he say, yes, mama, this time is for the better.”

 

According to police, Mai had been socializing and consuming alcohol prior to the incident.

 

ACP Hilberto Romero,

“The information we have is yesterday we were consuming alcoholic beverages at the yard.”

 

Now that Gabriel is gone, his family and friends are hoping that changes can be made for the better. Betancourt is calling on the Ministry of Transport to crack down on traffic offences.

 

Lily Betancourt

“When these buses are taking passengers, from Ladyville to Belize City or back, those doors are to be open? It is the traffic authority’s decision that they ride with the doors open or it is the driver care carelessness?”

 

The family believes that if a change is made for safer roads in Belize, then Gabriel’s death would not have been in vain. Britney Gordon for News Five.