Bequia man is country’s second road fatality

FATAL CRASH

When Irene Hazell realized her brother Edson was not a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, she and her last living brother Dougie sprinted all the way to the Digicel store on Back Street.{{more}}

“The first thing I see was his (left foot) sandal on the pavement,” Irene recalled.

Edson’s other sandal was on his foot in the drain next to the crumpled Suzuki Tracker, R1881, in which he had been a passenger.

Just eight months into working on the mainland, from Bequia where he was born and grew up, Edson was out with his cousin-in-law and best friend, Police Officer Salmon Bailey, attached to the traffic department, along with Amal Thompson, another police officer, and Jacqueline Adams, of Cemetery Hill, when he met his death.

The group had been out enjoying the Friday night party scene hours before the tragedy unfolded, leaving family members torn and hurt.

Edson’s mother Irma had traveled from Bequia the day before, and had seen her son briefly when he came home from work at the Layou quarry. She was resting when he left his sister Irene’s house at Cemetery Hill.

“It was about minutes to six when my cousin Wendy (Bailey’s wife) called,” said a visibly exhausted Irene.

“She said that Bailey got in an accident.”

At that time Irene did not know that her brother was with him.

On her way to the hospital she heard that someone had died in the accident. Upon seeing Bailey and being told that her brother had been with him, she started looking for the 24-year-old welder.

“I ask a nurse if Edson Hazell was admitted to the hospital. When she said no, that’s when I realized he was dead.”

“When I saw him there in the road I fainted.”

Family members described Hazell as a hard working youth who was funny and liked to have fun.

He was part of a close knit family, the fifth of six children to his parents.

Perhaps hurting the most from the ordeal is his younger brother Dougie, who is left to console his parents and remaining three sisters.

“I feel it, cause is me one right about now,” the 21-year-old lamented, referring to being the only son, only brother alive.

About four years ago, eldest brother Ezra was stabbed to death in Bequia.

The family traveled to Bequia on Wednesday, where Edson will be laid to rest on Sunday, January 27.