By Belize Live News Staff: At 2:35 in the morning, Barrier Reef Drive belongs to the night breeze, a few wandering souls, and, as one island man discovered on Wednesday, the full attention of the mobile patrol.
The Belize Police Department reports that officers on patrol along San Pedro’s famous waterfront street spotted a man pedalling a blue and green beach cruiser north to south, which on that stretch of one-way road is precisely the wrong direction. The interception came in front of a bank ATM, and what might have been a warning anywhere else became the complete procedure: offence stated, arrest made, caution given, rights read, and a ride to the station, man and bicycle together in the pan of the police mobile.
The rider was identified as Jeff Anariba, 30, a construction worker of the San Mateo Area. At the station his rights were read in a language he understood and acknowledged with his signature, freely given, and after a stay in the holding cell, the formal charge landed the same day: causing a bicycle to proceed up a one-way street. He met the final caution with silence.
Anariba, as with anyone charged, is presumed innocent unless and until the court rules otherwise.
It may be the smallest traffic charge the island lays all year, and that is exactly why it earns its ink. San Pedro’s streets are a working compromise between golf carts, bicycles, delivery trucks, and wall-to-wall pedestrians, and the one-way system on Barrier Reef Drive is the thread holding that compromise together. Wednesday’s message from the patrol was unambiguous: the arrows on the signs are not suggestions, the rules ride around the clock, and they apply to every set of wheels, from the freight truck down to the beach cruiser.
The wrong way home cost a night and bought a court date. The right way, as ever, was free.
