One man is dead and another nursing serious injuries following an accident along the St Luke’s Road, St George, late yesterday afternoon.
Dead is 17-year-old Roosi Straughn, of Bottom Close, Wildey, St Machael, while 45-year-old Orwin Barcot, of Pinelands, St Michael, was reported to have received facial injuries and broken feet.
According to police reports, Straughn was one of seven passengers travelling in a white open-back truck driven by Barcot towards Brighton, St George, when it was involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle.
Straughn was a student at the Barbados Vocational Training Centre, where he did auto mechanics.
The driver of the other vehicle was 39-year-old Charles Wiltshire, of Haggatt Hall, St Michael. He was one of two people in that vehicle.
Police public relations officer, Inspector David Welch, said that five of those involved in the accident complained of injuries and were taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment.
When the MIDWEEK NATION team arrived on the scene, there were several police officers, two fire tenders, and one ambulance each from the Barbados Defence Force and the QEH.
As news of the accident spread, a large crowd converged on the scene.
“Roosi dead . . . .,” said one man, who was on his cellphone.
As Charles Bourne, father of the deceased, pushed closer to scene of the accident, he broke down in tears.
And after about two hours, close friends and family were taken to identify the body.
One of the onlookers, athletics trainer Benny Rowe said Straughn was a close friend and was involved in an athletics training programme that he supervises.
“He is the kind of child that was really obedient. I am not his father but when I talk to him he hear. We used to make a lot of sport,” he said. (MM)
