Four contestants of the upcoming Miss San Pedro Pageant 2018, including the reigning Miss San Pedro and four other chaperones, were involved in a traffic accident while returning to Chetumal from Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico, on Monday, August 20. None of them were seriously injured but passengers of the vehicle that crashed into theirs were taken to a nearby hospital.
The vehicles involved included a blue Toyota with license plates UVH-784-E from Quintana Roo in which a family was traveling and a white van with blue stripes with license plates 54-272 from Belize City. It was reported that the Toyota collided into the van as it reached the intersection on Highway 301. The front of the white van was completely destroyed but no one was hurt. A total of three people were injured inside the blue Toyota.
The passengers in the van included Miss San Pedro Contestants Seleny Borges, Janelly Aban, Daisy Martinez, Chelsea Muñoz, (Faith Noel Edgar was unable to attend) Miss San Pedro 2017 Virginia Vasquez and chaperones Shamir Guerrero, Andy Nuñez, Yakarelis Hernandez and Councilor Flora Ancona. The van was a chartered rental that took the group to Playa del Carmen for the delegates to shop for their evening gowns and enjoy a tour of the area.
According to reports, the trip was an unauthorized one as the group was only to travel as far as Chetumal, but one of the chaperones told Ambergris Today that the trip to Playa del Carmen was part of the group’s itinerary.
One of the chaperones told Ambergris Today that it was on their way back to Chetumal that the Toyota car came speeding out of a dirt road and collided with their van before their driver could do anything to avoid the impact. They say that the other driver appeared to be drunk and escaped from the scene of the accident, leaving his injured passengers behind. The three injured persons were from the blue Toyota received medical attention from the Red Cross Paramedics from Felipe Carillo Puerto and rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Both vehicles were towed to a federal pound yard.
No one from San Pedro, Belize was seriously injured except for Yakarelis Hernandez who was traveling in the front passenger side of the vehicle. She was badly shaken up from the impact of the collision and the deployment of the air bag. The group received assistance from the Consul of Belize in Quintana Roo, Dr. Luis Montero and a family friend who drove them back to Chetumal. They were taken to the Clinica Carranza where everyone received a medical checkup. The entire San Pedro delegation arrived safely back home on Ambergris Caye yesterday.