A family in Saint Lucia is facing unfathomable grief after losing two brothers in two separate fatal road traffic collisions, with the second death coming exactly seven days after the first.
The second victim has been formally identified by local law enforcement as 28-year-old Meshack Frederick, a resident of La Resource in Vieux Fort. Meshack lost his life in a single-vehicle crash in the Cedar Heights neighborhood of Vieux Fort in the early hours of Friday morning. The tragedy unfolded just one week after his younger brother, 27-year-old Dane Frederick, was killed in another collision along the island’s Micoud Highway.
According to official details from the Saint Lucia Fire Service, emergency response teams were dispatched to the Cedar Heights crash site at approximately 1:55 a.m. The collision involved three people, including Meshack, who was in the vehicle when it veered off the roadway and slammed into an exterior wall of a local residence. When first responders arrived, they found the vehicle resting on its side, with Meshack trapped beneath the wreckage. The two other male occupants of the car had already exited the vehicle and were located unharmed but injured by the side of the road.
Firefighters worked quickly to extract Meshack from under the overturned car, but they found him unresponsive with no detectable vital signs upon removal. Rescuers administered emergency first aid on scene before transporting him to a nearby hospital for further intervention. Hospital officials later confirmed that Meshack was pronounced dead after arrival. The two other passengers sustained facial cuts and other minor to moderate injuries, which were treated on site before they were also transported to the hospital for ongoing care.
The first fatal collision that claimed the life of Dane Frederick unfolded just over an hour earlier on the previous Friday, August 21. Officers from the Micoud Police Station responded to reports of a crash between a motor scooter and a parked backhoe on the Micoud Highway at Malgretoute just after 1:30 a.m. Preliminary police investigations indicate that the scooter was traveling south along the highway when it drifted off the paved road and struck the backhoe, which was stationary at the time of the crash.
Dane, who was operating the scooter, and his 22-year-old passenger were both rushed to St Jude Hospital with acute injuries. Dane succumbed to his injuries days later, while his passenger remains in care in stable condition.
Local law enforcement has launched official investigations into the circumstances of both collisions, and is working to determine what factors contributed to the two tragic deaths that have left one local family shattered.