An Unnecessary Death

April 2000 Table of Contents

AN UNNECESSARY DEATH
By Betsy Bracey

On 4th March a man was killed by accident while walking along the highway just outside of Treasure Cay. He was a Haitian man here on a work permit who did gardening in Treasure Cay. Those who worked with him and those of us who knew him are terribly saddened by the death of this hard working, sweet natured young man who was doing what he had to do to support his three children back in Haiti.

He was scheduled for a vacation to see his children next month and he liked to tell of how beautiful his part of Haiti by the sea was and how he missed his homeland and how excited he was about his upcoming trip, a trip that will never be taken to children who will never again see their father. How can we not feel dreadfully sad and sorry and willing to do something to prevent another like accident.

Several nights before, I was driving out of Treasure Cay on my way to a
local restaurant when suddenly up popped two men in my windscreen, literally out of the blackness, both dressed in very dark attire and both walking on the edge of the tarmac. Of course, I swerved the instant they appeared but I was too close for comfort. With heart pounding, I wanted to turn back and tell them to please wear light and reflective clothing at night and to please step off the edge of the road when a car was approaching for such a dreadful accident could happen to anyone driving on the Abaco roads at night. If another car had been coming toward me with headlights shining in my eyes, I never would have seen these two pedestrians.

A few miles further I spotted two flashing lights quite far ahead and soon
realized that they were the reflectors on the heels of tennis shoes worn by a young boy walking the road. I had no difficulty in planning my direction to give this lad plenty of room and had another car been approaching I would have had plenty of time to slow down or stop. It was not an accident in the making because of those two small reflectors.

I refer you to the article in the Abaco Journal published in January 2000
and written by Old Grumpy. He's right! We must have white reflector lines
down the center and on each edge of our roads. This cannot be a difficult
thing to accomplish. It cannot even be a very expensive item when one
considers the overall cost of building these roads. It is time for all
residents on Abaco to think about how their community can step up to the
task and begin to do our bit to protect the lives of friends and family. Young men in all of our communities need work. If every household would be responsible to pay for the paint and labor for just a short span of roadway it could be accomplished.

And please, please wear light clothing at night, better yet buy a reflective
bit of outerwear and reflector shoes for children. Have lights and
stick-on reflectors on bikes and golf carts and finally, step off the
road onto the grass whenever a car approaches, day or night. Let's all do
our part to keep ourselves, our pedestrians and drivers protected from
having the terrible experience of being party to a dreadful accident.
Everyone involved suffers and it is preventable.

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