A small community in Belize is mourning a beloved pastor who was killed in a traffic accident just hours before he was set to take part in his son’s wedding ceremony.
In the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 29, 53-year-old Pastor Julian Bol of a Belizean village died when a wooden house being transported on a trailer came loose and struck his vehicle, according to details shared at a Belize Police Department press conference carried by Greater Belize Media (GBM) and News 5 Live. Breaking Belize News also reported the incident.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith said officers were called to a traffic accident on the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway near San Juan Village shortly before 5 a.m. on Saturday.
“When they arrived, they found a damaged wooden house that had become dislodged from a trailer that was transporting it,” Smith explained.
Bol’s blue passenger van, which had “extensive damage,” was discovered about 800 feet away from the dislodged house, she said.
According to the initial investigation by the Belize Police Department, the crash occurred after the driver of the vehicle towing the trailer “observed another vehicle traveling in the opposite direction.”
“The driver of the lead vehicle reported that he tried to warn the oncoming driver by blinking his lights, but the vehicle continued toward them, and shortly after that he heard a collision,” Smith said during the briefing.
Smith noted that Bol “appeared to have died on impact.” A 13-year-old child who was also in the van was not injured, she added.
Bol had left his home in Maya Mopan, a village in the Stann Creek District, to pick up cooks who were helping with preparations for his son’s wedding, GBM reported.
Police said they will be reviewing whether the person transporting the wooden house — who has not yet been publicly identified — was following “the terms of the wide load permit that was issued.” The investigation into Bol’s death remains ongoing.
