When Hylanda Sands-Johnson was staying in New Providence earlier this month, a sudden alert popped up on her smartphone: her 23-year-old younger brother Tristan Smith’s iPhone had registered a severe motor vehicle crash in remote South Andros. Immediately dialling his number, she was stunned to reach a bystander at the scene, who described a chaotic scene filled with screaming and frantic efforts to locate Smith’s body amid the wreckage. Smith, a dedicated linesman for Bahamas Power and Light, had been travelling south on Queen’s Highway in his white Suzuki Swift shortly after 5 p.m. that Thursday when he lost control of the vehicle, causing it to overturn and eject him into nearby roadside bushes. As Smith had designated Sands-Johnson as his emergency contact in his phone’s crash detection feature, she received the real-time alert the moment the accident occurred. Over the phone, she calmly instructed bystanders not to move the injured Smith and to dispatch emergency support to the site, while simultaneously notifying Andros law enforcement of her brother’s exact phone location and alerting local relatives to rush to the scene. Despite rapid efforts to get him care, Smith was transported to the Miriam Green Clinic — a local medical facility named in honour of his own grandmother — where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Sands-Johnson was then faced with the devastating task of breaking the news of his passing to their mother and three other sisters, making Smith the only son in the all-female sibling group. “It’s a devastating, painful blow,” Sands-Johnson shared in an emotional interview with Tribune Freeport. “He was my mom’s youngest child, her baby boy. We all thought we’d get to see him get married, raise his own kids, grow old with us. No one expected to lose him at 23.” Local police confirmed their investigation into the crash is ongoing, noting that responding officers found Smith unconscious in the bushes before emergency medical teams airlifted him to the local clinic. The outpouring of community support following Smith’s death has been unprecedented: law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, long-time Andros residents, former colleagues from his postings across Mangrove Cay and Abaco (where he once resided), and even total strangers in New Providence have reached out to the family to share condolences and fond memories of the young linesman. Widely known across multiple Bahamian island communities for his endlessly generous spirit, Smith was famous for giving the shirt off his back to anyone in need, cracking constant jokes to lift up struggling neighbours, and posting daily social media affirmations thanking God for life, health, and strength. Multiple strangers have shared stories of Smith encouraging them to pursue their career passions or offering free support to help launch their small local businesses. Sands-Johnson explained that the family has now endured three separate devastating losses in recent years, and Smith’s parents are struggling deeply to cope: his father, who had no other children, shared an exceptionally close, unbreakable bond with his only son, and has found the loss almost unbearable. For Sands-Johnson, the tragedy has pushed her to step into a role of quiet strength, as she supports her own two young sons while guiding the rest of her grieving family to take healing one day at a time. “Tristan was a beacon of light for everyone he met,” she said. “His death has left a huge, unfillable void in our family and this entire community, but we’re holding onto every memory of how much joy he brought to so many people in his short life.”